Reborn Dragon Rebirth
by Wingd knight
Summary: A redone version of my story Reborn Dragon with some cleaning up, some revised plot points, and really just renewing my interest in the idea. Rating may go up.
1. Prolong

**Reread 'Reborn Dragon' realized that my earlier chapters sucked and I wrote myself into a corner in the more recent ones. So now I'm going to rewrite all the chapters I posted so that I don't have an excuse to abandon it. First up, Prolong.**

 **PS: If you guys like the current chapters I'll be making a new story called 'Reborn Dragon: Error'**

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Darkness. That was the only thing that Natsu Dragneel, vaulted as the great fire dragon slayer, the Salamander of Fairy Tail, could see. He didn't know where he was or how long he had been there, but he did know how he got there. After finally defeating his elder brother the most powerful Dark Mage of all time Zeref Dragneel he had been dragged into an alternate world by Acnologia, the Dragon of Apocalypse, to do battle. Acnologia was once like Natsu a first generation dragon slayer trained by a dragon on the side of humanity to slay those that would destroy it, but had long since lost himself to madness and an insatiable desire to kill all those who bare the power of the dragon, whether it be the creatures themselves or slayers of any of the three generations classes.

They had fought in that false world, their power turning all to ash, lava, and dust. They had cared nothing for their surroundings, why would they? There were no innocents for Natsu to fear getting caught in the crossfire, and it wasn't like Acnologia would care even if there were. In the end Natsu had stood victorious over the blue haired maniac, his body bruised, bloody, and broken but he alone was the one standing and in possession of even a sliver of power. He had been prepared to deal the final blow, all his remaining energy blazing in the fist of his one working arm when the world around him fell apart.

Turns out that the world that they had been fighting in had been a representation of Acnologia's power and now that he was defeated it was falling apart. The other dragon slayers that Acnologia had abducted were able to use those brief moments while the world was ending to return to their reality, but Natsu, tired and drained of all his formidable strength could do nothing as the Black Dragon at his feet laughed and vanished into the void that their battle field had become and darkness consumed him.

' _Is this it?'_ Natsu thought, ' _After all that I that_ we _went through, is this how my journey ends? I never got to become S-class, or beat Gildarts or Erza, or purpose to Lisanna, or…'_ His thoughts catered off, the weight of his apparent death finally sinking in. ' _At least with Zeref and Acnologia gone, everyone will be safe.'_

 **"** **Natsu"** a voice bellowed, breaking the suffocating silence that had until then permeated the mage's surroundings. ' _I know that voice! Igneel!'_

At once Natsu's head began to whip around looking desperately through the darkness for the source of the familiar voice of his deceased foster father who had been one of Acnologia's unfortunate victims and the only one before Natsu to maim the bastard.

" **Natsu"** , the voice rang again this time accompanied by the appearance of a deep red light the same color as the deceased dragon's scales.

"Dad!" the pinket cried, ' _guess there's one up side to being dead.'_

" **You time has not yet come, Natsu"** The former Fire Dragon King told his son, " **The souls of my kin still cry for vengeance."** He boomed.

Hearing this Natsu's excitement vanished faster than Gray's cloths on an average day. "What the hell are you talking about dad? Acnologia is dead what more do they want?" The slayer demanded. For crying out loud he had just been through two of the most insane magic fights of all time and had freaking died, why couldn't he just have some time with his dad telling him that he was awesome?

" **No he is not. The world your battle took place in was within the Time Lapse, a realm beyond the concept of time and a natural barrier between dimensions."** The dragon king explained, " **When you defeated the Apocalypse Dragon he used his last dregs of magic to open a gate way to slip through, entering a new world for his body to heal and to regain his strength."** The disembodied voice revealed.

"What?!" Natsu demanded, "That freaking cheater! I'll kick his ass!" He declared.

"That might be kinda tricky," A new feminine voice cut in, "now that you don't have a body I mean." The newcomer continues a form materializing out of the darkness showing the speaker to be Mavis Vermillion, the founder and first master of the Fairy Tail wizards guild that Natsu bore the mark of.

"Master Mavis!" Natsu cried out, "What are you doing here? I figured you'd be with my brother… or seeing him off to hell maybe."

"While I can understand the assumption, that still hurts little brother." A forth presence made itself known and subsequently revealing itself to be none other than Natsu's suicidal/ genocidal older brother Zeref. "But to answer the question it seems that because I spent so long under what higher powers deem a torturous divine punishment outside of Hell for so long I will not be condemned to the depths of the Pit."

Choosing to ignore the allusion to his brother apparently meeting at least one god in the past couple of hours between his death and now Natsu moved on, "What are you two even doing here? Igneel came to tell me about Acnologia's cop out, but I thought you two were finally at rest?"

Mavis just smiled at her guild member, "We thought we'd thank you for letting us be that way." She told him sadly, "Natsu when that Shadow Realm you were fighting in collapsed it destroyed your body along with itself, in other words, you died." She revealed.

"We can't do anything about the body you lost, or your death, not this time." Zeref continued, "But we can offer you a choice. Acnologia will take at the very least two decades to regain his former power and return to Earthland to complete his mission of killing the remaining Dragon Slayers, we can give you the chance to stop him before he gets the opportunity."

"But I thought you said I was dead and you couldn't do anything about it?" Natsu asked his confusion evident.

"We can't do anything about your death in Eathland no." Mavis confirmed, "But together we have the knowledge and power to send your soul to be reincarnated into the world that Acnologia ran to." She told him.

" **You will retain your powers and memories, but the body you would possess would be wholly new, it would allow you to fight the coward at your very peak."** Igneel assured him.

"But what about my friends? Will I ever see them again?" Natsu asked the three gathered souls.

"Not in life, no." Zeref told his brother, "When your time comes to a close in this new world your soul will have free access to both its afterlife as well as Earthland's, that is when you will once more see your loved ones, I'm afraid any sooner is impossible." The Black magic user told him.

"… Our fight nearly destroyed a whole kingdom Zeref, and the one I had with Acnologia was even worse. What if when we fight again, someone gets hurt?"

Stepping- er, gliding- forward, Zeref grasped his brother's shoulder tightly in a show of support, "It is the nature of dragons to be the embodiments of nature, just as much as gods, I will not lie and say that you could stop others from being caught in you two's cross fire if they are near your battle, but your smarter than people give you credit for little brother. Don't let him dictate the terms of the fight, find a place far from innocents and make him face you there and show him once and for all, the power of our family and Fairy Tail." He told him.

Natsu smiled at his brother, for the first time in his memory feeling kinship with the last of his blood.

"Before you go though, we have a few gifts for you." Mavis told the pinket.

"Huh? I thought you said I was being reen-reincat- reborn or something?" Natsu asked.

" **What we plan to give you are not physical things Natsu, but something that will serve you far better."**

"We're going to give you the knowledge of our magics." Mavis clarified. "I'll go first so you see what I'm talking about." Gently the spirit laid her hand on the dragon slayers chest, "In life I was a master of illusion magic, telepathy, empathic magic, light magic, and created the Three Grand Fairy spells, and now I give them all to you." She told him.

In an instant a flood of information began to rush through Natsu's mind, it was like when Mirajane taught him and Lucy transformation magic, or when Erza taught him and Gray how to use the basics of Reequip, but… faster, more comprehensive, like he knew it all almost as good as he knew his Dragon Slayer magic. It was one hell of a cheat code that's for sure.

"Woah." Natsu breathed.

"My turn." Zeref told him, replacing his lover's hand with his own, "Throughout my long life I have learned and mastered countless magics, many lost to the sands of time and many more that even I have forgotten as the years passed. Now I give you a portion of that knowledge so that you may continue to rise above me." Like with Mavis' gift the knowledge of magic flowing into his head was clear cut, concise, and fully encompassing. The only difference was in the shear amount of information that was being downloaded into his brain. Mavis had only lived in a physical body for a bit more than twenty some odd years and was mostly self-taught in the ways of magic, while Zeref had spent over a decade as the prized student of one of history's greatest magic schools and had spent nearly four hundred years advancing his skills in search of a way to break his curse. The difference of time and resources between the two revered mages showed.

Last was Igneel, " **You already know all that I could teach you in the ways of magic, but I can leave you with something that I think will be just as useful."** At the dragon's words a small ball of light separated itself from the larger mass that the fallen king's voice was coming from and entered Natsu's body, " **This is the blessing of the dragon. It will allow your future body to be stronger, more durable, faster, more agile, and better equipped than even your old one."**

"What do you mean by 'equipped'?" Natsu asked his father.

" **You'll figure it out."** He assured him, " **Now go, and show this new world the might of the Dragons and the strength of the son of the great Igneel!"**

And just like that Natsu Dragneel's soul was thrust into a new world to do battle once more to strike down the rising Apocalypse.

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 **Better? Worse? Let me know.**


	2. Chapter 1- The start

**Not so sure I did this one justice, but its out and a startup for the story. Read and Review.**

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Brand Xiao Long formerly Natsu Dragneel was the middle child of Taiyang Xiao Long and the twin brother of Yang Xiao Long and the elder half-brother of Ruby Rose though no one would be able to tell if they didn't already know. Brand had been born with jet black hair and red eyes like his mother, and a natural light tan like his father, but years spent outside and the impact of his former life had led to his skin taking a slightly darker hue and had him bleach and color his hair the same shade of dark pink of his former life.

The first couple years of Natsu's new life had been pretty standard, he grew up with a protective father, a loving stepmother, and two sisters. For a while he even allowed himself to forget about Acnologia and the threat that the rouge dragon represented, but after the death of his stepmother Summer Rose, Natsu decided it was time for him to get back on track. He quickly learned how to have his magic work on the ambient energy of the new world he found himself in, called Remnant, and the energy the warriors of this dimension- Huntsmen and Huntresses- Aura which he forcibly unlocked when he was four.

By age twelve he had the power of most mid-tier Huntsmen and was ready to really begin his training. He left with little fan fair, leaving a simple note explaining his desire to get stronger, though he made sure to leave out any mention of Acnologia or anything to do with Earthland, and said that he would be sure to check in regularly but to not expect his return for five years when it was time for him and Yang to apply for Beacon and to attend the institution.

Needless to say that didn't go over well. It took less than three months for his Uncle Qrow to track him down and demand an explanation for why he had left home. Their talk hadn't been the most civil which given how Natsu's mother- Qrow's sister, had up and left her family was not surprising. In the end Qrow had managed to get him to agree to regular video calls with his dad and sisters along with a promise to return for at least ten days a year so that they could be sure he was alive and well.

The next five years had a pretty set schedule, go around the world like a nomad, exercise in such a way that a normal person would view as insanity, train in the various magics left to him by his brother and master Mavis, take down various gangs and bandit clans in the grimlands even earing the title of the Fire Dragon from one of the villages he saved, and kill the creatures of Grim that plagued Remnant since time immortal. And family visits, can't forget the family visits.

The first time he had come back Yang had tried to knock his teeth out and almost ended up breaking her hand instead, the whole family then had a big dinner and went to the beach for a week. The second time his twin had her Aura unlocked and demanded a sparring match in which Natsu- Brand to her- had knocked her out in a way similar to how Gildarts had done to him in the past, a quick one handed chop to the top of her head knocking her into the ground. They then preceded to go camping.

That cycle continued through all five years, a quick fight with Yang that ended in a blink and then family vacation. It was nice, it allowed him to still feel a close bond with his new blood family despite the limited interaction that they had. They would never be the friends he had in Fairy Tail, but they reminded him of how he felt when he was in the guildhall drinking and laughing with the rest of his guild. Like he said, it was nice.

Now his training period was over, he was walking back through the gates of the city of Vale, not for the purpose of a brief family visit but to spend one more weekend with his family before beginning his attendance at Beacon Huntsmen Academy. ' _If I could find Acnologia on my own I wouldn't even bother going to- ugh- school, but I need access to the Huntsmen organization's information network if I want to find the bastard.'_ Natsu thought to himself. The whole time he was out training he had kept both ear and eye out for anything that he thought could lead him to his foster father's murderer, but hadn't even heard a whisper of his whereabouts.

With a sigh the red eyed teenager got ready to endure his sisters' reactions to his return and his father's overly dramatic whining about how _two_ of his babies were now leaving him. ' _I wonder if Gramps or Makow were ever like that when their kids began to take missions.'_

As the dragon slayer began to make his way home he was interrupted by the sound of gunshots. Immediately Natsu began to run in the direction of the commotion being sure to keep himself limited to only Huntsman level speeds and not into S-class wizards level, casting out several layers of sensory magics left to him by Zeref to determine the scope of the battle he was rushing into.

' _Ten people, all Auras unlocked but eight are small and untrained, their dropping like flies because of the ninth, above average Aura, decently trained and… is that Ruby?!'_ Yes, that was defiantly his little sister's Aura he was sensing right now but the others were a mystery to him.

Arriving at the battle scene the fire user saw the beaten but breathing bodies of the eight weak fighters he had picked up when he first cast out his net and his sister using her sniper-scythe as a booster to climb a building in order to follow the source of the tenth Aura signature he had picked up, an orange haired man in a white trench coat and black bowler hat. ' _Above the norm reserves but nothing that really stands out, decently trained but the refining is half baked, probably dropped out of a lower combat school sometime close to his graduation.'_ He concluded. Ruby stood a good chance at beating him if he guessed right, but seeing as the guy was running around with a bunch of gang members he probably plays dirty and his little sister's only combat experience is against mindless low level grim and other students in school matches, she might not be able to deal with real world fight tactics just yet, her naivety would leave her at a disadvantage.

With this in mind Natsu leapt up the building after his red cloaked sister, his brain already in battle mode. He landed lightly on the roof of the complex and took in the battle field in an instant. Ruby was standing in the center of the rooftop, the orange haired mobster on the other hand had already taken refuge on a dust-copter with a piolet that Natsu could tell was far more powerful than the orange haired man, along with having a very… warped feeling soul.

"End of the line Red!" The orange haired man yelled, throwing a fist sized Fire Dust crystal- which acted similarly to his world's lacrama- at his sister's feet before taking aim and firing at it with the hidden gun in his cane, causing a large explosion. Luckily for his baby sister, both he and a blond woman that seemed to have come out of nowhere were there to block the wave of fiery death from hitting her.

Natsu spared the woman a quick glance, she was tall, pale, with blond hair done in a low bun and braided drills, bright green eyes hidden behind librarian glasses, she was busty, even more so then his twin, and wore a white shirt with a dipped front and neck clasp and to finish it off a dark purple cape. To put it short, she was a walking librarian fetish model, complete with riding crop. And here he was, single, without a mate, and in the prime of his life. ' _No, bad Natsu. Fight now, admire later.'_

The woman, whose Aura identified her as a fully trained Huntress, spared him the same quick glance that he had given her before returning her attention to the fight at hand.

With a wave of her riding crop she activated what appeared to be a hidden dust compartment within it, which shot out a dozen purple flares at the copter striking it's hull but failing to bring the ship down. The orange haired man, seeing that he was outmatched, disappeared into the cockpit of the ship probably to get the stronger signature to take his place.

While the two where switching out the blond cast another Dust based spell, this time aiming above the vehicle and creating a dark storm cloud above it, a cloud that began to rain down large icicles onto the flying metal contraption. For a second it seemed like it would be enough to take it down, until the mobster's partner joined the fray.

Her face was hidden in shadow, but she wore a crimson red dress with orange designs on its sleeves that glowed in a way that portrayed their nature as Fire Dust infused cloth. Cloth that she put to good use by casting her own fire based Dust spell at the blond woman, a spell that Natsu caught in his hand before it could detonate.

His sensory net allowed him to feel the three gathered women's shock at the display of supposedly impossible feat. In response he just smirked cockily at the Fire Dust user before he used his magic to double the Dust blast's power and threw it back at the woman.

The fire user was quick to put up a shield in an attempt to stop her returning attack, but failed to see just how much more powerful the blast had become. The resulting explosion not only cleared away the blonde's weather cloud but also knocked out the Dust-copter's left side engines, forcing it out of the sky and into the street below in an emergency landing.

As soon as the ship was below the building's lip both he and the blond where quick to rush to the roof's edge to see what the two passengers' would react. What they saw was the two, still unnamed criminals rushing out of their former get away vehicle's remains with carrying a silver suitcase and continuing their escape with a quickly hotwired care off the side of the street.

"Damn cowards!" Natsu yelled at them. He was prepared to jump down after the retreating car, but the librarian stopped him with a look.

Before she was able to begin what would surely be an Erza worthy lecture, Ruby repaid him for saving her life by speeding in front of the woman, eyes wide with wonder and hands clasped in front of her in joy.

"You're a Huntress!" She squealed, "Can I have your autograph?"

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 **Made Natsu's lust more passive like a normal person, gave him a good bit of time away from home so that I can add some BS mixed with truth about his old world and how he became as strong as he now is, and I established Natsu as an- at minimum- Beacon professor level fighter.**

 **Thoughts?**


	3. Chapter 2- Off to Beacon

**Fourth of July everybody! Here's a little celebratory gift- A transition chapter! So much fun right? Enjoy!**

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"Why the hell are we here?" Natsu- known to those in the room as Brand- asked the blond woman he had fought beside a mere hour before. Currently he and his sister were locked in an interrogation room at the Vale City police department with the woman- recently introduced as Glynda Goodwitch- glared at them.

"You two put yourselves and many others in great danger tonight." She told him, "Confronting armed criminals and getting into high level fights in the middle of the city could have caused any amount of damages and could have gotten you or innocent bystanders killed."

The slayer scowled at that, "Didn't my sister and that shopkeeper say that Ruby didn't get involved until _after_ those robbers held her at sword point? And I know for a fact that I didn't get involved until the same time you did when we were _saving my sister from being burned alive_. Seems like self-defense on Ruby's part and defense of a family member on mine. So I ask again _why are we here?"_ What? After all the times in Earthland where he got arrested he decided to at least _know_ the laws even if he knew he would be breaking them sooner or later either way.

At this point Ruby was starting to get nervous. She knew her brother was brash- he did leave home to live as a wonderer in the Grimlands at twelve after all- but this was a _Huntress_ he was talking to. A fully trained, highly skilled, _glaring_ Huntress at that. It wasn't that Ruby didn't agree with what Brand was saying, it's just that she thought he shouldn't say it in such a way that makes the really scary lady madder.

"That would have been the case," Goodwitch told them, "Had Ms. Rose not pursued Torchwick when he ran away, and had _you_ Mr. Xiao Long not taken it upon yourself to throw an explosive at a Dust-copter and almost make it crash in the middle of the city."

"Hey all I did was knock out some of their movement thrusters, all their landing gear and engines were fine. Any two bit piolet could have landed the damn thing as long as they didn't try to go anywhere but down." Natsu defended his actions.

"That doesn't change the fact that you threw an explosive at an aircraft." She told him.

"You made a freaking snowstorm of death! How is throwing those asshole's own damn explosive back at them worse?" He demanded.

Before Goodwitch could continue their argument a new presence made itself known. "Now now, let's all calm down." The new member told them. From the shadows that housed the interrogation room's door a gray haired, gray eyed man with glasses and wearing a black suit and green scarf stepped forward a plate of cookies in hand. A brief use of a magic sensory spell reworked to detect Aura levels revealed him to be nearly three times more powerful than Goodwitch, standing roughly on par with Erigor when they fought for the Lullaby flute if not a little stronger than the Grim Reaper. ' _No that's not right. He's suppressing his power, but I can't tell exactly how much, no more than half from what I can tell, but that's still a big gap from what he's showing heck for all I know he's only hiding a tenth of his power from me it's all a fear ploy, he's good I'll give him that.'_

Walking up to the interrogation table the grey haired man continued to speak, "Ruby Rose… You have, silver eyes" He said, leaning in to take a closer look at the cloak wearing girl's orbs.

Ruby, for her part, seemed uncomfortable at the near breach of her personal space and didn't know how to respond.

"So," The man continued, "where did you learn to do this?" He asked her, gesturing to Goodwitch who had brought up a recording of what appeared to be a fight between Ruby and several run of the mill thugs on the street.

"S-Signal academy…" Ruby mumbled.

"They taught you how to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?"

"Well, one teacher in particular." She admitted.

"I see," The man said, sliding her the plate of cookies. Natsu quickly nabbed one while the younger teen began to attack the treats with unmatched gusto. Sometimes Natsu forgot how much she loved cookies.

While the two were helping themselves to the baked goods, the green clad man continued his train of thought, "It's just I've only ever seen one other scythe wielder of that skill before, a dusty old crow…" He mused.

"Mmm, vhats var unkol Qvow." Ruby told him enthusiastically with her mouth full.

"Either swallow or get better at full mouth speak sis." Natsu told her his sister, his own mouth full of confection.

Swallowing hard Ruby began again, "Sorry Brand. I said that's our uncle Qrow." She told the man, "He's a teacher at Signal" she explained, "I was complete _garbage_ before he took me under his wing. Now I'm all like 'Hwwwaaa, wichaaa'." She said enthusiastically waving her arms around into 'cool' ninja fight poses.

"So I've noticed." The man told her before turning to face Natsu, "And you Mister Brand Xiao Long, where did _you_ learn how to catch an active Dust spell and return it at twice its original power?" He questioned the Dragon Slayer.

With a shrug Natsu told the man a facet of the truth, "Skill and badassery." He told him honestly.

The man frowned, "You truly are your father's son." He said bluntly, "Now what is a wanderer like you doing in a city like Vale? And why is an adorable girl like miss Rose doing at a school designed to train warriors?" He asked them.

Ruby was the first to answer, "Well, I want to be a huntress." She told him.

"You want to slay monsters?"

"Yeah," Ruby agreed, "I only have two more years of training left at Signal!" She told him, "And then I'm going to apply to Beacon. You see my sister and brother are starting there this year and their trying to become Huntsmen and I'm trying to become a Huntress because I want to help people." She explained. "Our parents always taught us to help others, so I thought, 'Well might as well make a carrier out of it' I mean police are alright but Huntsmen and Huntresses are just so much more romantic and exciting and really gosh you know!?" She squealed.

Here Natsu couldn't help but throw in his own two cents, "It looks like you forgot that Huntsmen and Huntresses are also way more likely to die. Glory and excitement in exchange for safely and in many cases longevity is the deal made when one chooses that path." He remined his sister. Natsu remembered well the trials he had to go through in his past life, the near death experiences, the mourning of family and friends when a guildmate died in the fields, the corpses he and his team left behind, the horrors they witnessed and had to pick up after… For Remnant things were much the same, the years he spent in the Grimmlands had led to him seeing things that would break a lesser man and forced him to the spill the blood of a dozens of wicked souls to save the lives of hundreds on innocent ones. That was the path he had chosen, the path of a Dragon Slayer, a wizard, a Huntsman, a guardian.

Hearing what her brother said instantly drained Ruby of her previous sense of joy and giddiness as his words sunk in. Her mother had died in the field fighting as a Huntress, her father and uncle had numerous scars both on their bodies and on their souls from leading the lives as Huntsmen. How could she forget that her dreams may very well become her nightmares?

Sensing the change in the emotional atmosphere of the room, the green clad man spoke again, "Do you two know who I am?" He asked them.

Natsu for his part had no idea, but it seemed his sister did, "You're professor Ozpin, the Headmaster at Beacon." She stated.

The now named Ozpin smiled at her knowledge, "Hello."

"Nice to meet you."

"You want to come to my school?" Ozpin asked Ruby.

"More than anything."

Ozpin and Goodwitch shared a look and the blond woman rolled her eyes with a sound of annoyance. Ozpin turned back to Ruby with a smile, "Well okay."

At his words Ruby's eyes widened in joy while Natsu frowned, was he saying what they thought he was saying?

"In light of your skills miss Rose, I think we can agree that two more years at Signal would be a waste of time that you could be using to further your abilities." Ozpin told her, "I've already contacted your father and he agrees with me, so if you so desire I will give you the opportunity to join your siblings at Beacon in two days' time." Yep, he was saying what they thought he was saying.

The next thing Natsu really registered was boarding the airship to Beacon combat academy two days after being arrested. Beside him was his twin sister Yang in her typical brown and yellow skin and cleavage showing outfit and her weapon Ember Celica on her wrists, and Ruby in her gothic Lolita dress and red cape with Crescent Rose on its magnetic strip on her lower back.

Natsu for his part had traded out the worn brown cloak and faded black pants he had worn during his travels for an outfit that mirrored what he wore back in Earthland, open black and gold vest with nothing underneath, matching hip cape, baggy three quarter length white pants, open toed combat slides, and white scaly scarf made of dragon scales- all spelled by yours truly to be fire proof and extra durable. Granted the scarf was made from scales he had pulled off of his Dragon Force (and damn if that didn't hurt) but it both looked and felt like the one Igneel and Anna Heartfillia had made for him. In fact the only noticeable difference between his original body and his new one was the fact that his eyes were no longer the deep black color he used to have, but a rich red like what his brother's looked like when he used his cursed magic.

Looking up at the airship that would be taking the three siblings to their new school Natsu couldn't help but feel a nugget of dread in his stomach. "This is going to suck." He stated.

"What do you mean?" Yang asked her twin, "This is going to be awesome! Our baby sister is going to be joining us at Beacon!" She said happily, giving her now very uncomfortable sister a bear hug despite her mumbled protests.

"I meant the flight." Natsu told his twin, "In case you forgot, vehicles and I don't really get along." He reminded her.

Yang did her best to hide her smirk at her brother's words, it was nice to know that even if he could knock her out with one punch despite her Semblance, without even really trying or the use of his own Semblance he still had his own form of weakness.

"Why don't you just take your motion sickness pills?" Ruby asked her brother who's head slumped at her words.

"I put them in my checked bag." He admitted.

"HA!" Yang laughed, "Don't worry bro, it's just a ten minute flight, how bad could it be?"

She just had to jinx it didn't she?

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 **Right the gang is off to Beacon, Natsu and Ozpin have met and both know the other is hiding something, Yang seems to be a little jealous, and... that's it really. It was a transition chapter, not much really happens in transition chapters.**

 **Please be sure to leave a review with all your thoughts, concerns, and ideas!**

 **Wingd Knight out**


	4. Chapter 3- First day at School

**Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out, I planned on releasing it two weeks ago but I lost the document I had written it on so I had to rewrite the whole thing. Anyway enjoy and remember to leave a Review!**

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"OH SWEET GROUND HOW I'VE MISSED YOU!" Natsu cried out, jumping out of the freshly docked Bullhead airship and onto Beacon Academy's landing bays. The flight had been absolute torture for the Dragon Slayer, his enhanced senses granted to him by his magic causing even the slightest movements into gut wrenching lurches. Why such things didn't happen when he was with Happy or flew under his own power he didn't know, but artificial movement always rendered any Dragon Slayers helpless.

Yang just snickered at her brother "Geez you're even worse than Vomit Boy over there." She teased referring to the unfortunate blonde boy that hadn't been able to hold his lunch as well as Natsu and was currently emptying his guts into a nearby trashcan.

Before he could give his twin some choice words in response to her teasing Natsu was cut off by his other, younger sister, who had just taken notice of the many weapons currently being carried around by the Academy by new and returning students.

"Oh my gosh you guys! That kid has a collapsible staff! Oh and he has a fire sword!" She cried stars practically dancing in her silver eyes.

Luckily Yang was able to grab their sister's red cloak before she could run off to 'examine' the other students' gear. "Easy there little sister," Yang chastised, "Their just weapons!"

Ruby looked almost scandalized at the older girl's words, "Just weapons!? How can you say that!? Their an essential part of being a Huntsman, their an extension of ourselves! Oh their so cool!" She gushed.

"A weapon is only a weapon when a fighter wields it, otherwise it's just a decoration. It is the one who holds the sword that gives it purpose not the other way around" Natsu told his little sister, "Never forget that… Besides I don't use a weapon, so they're not really _essential_ now are they?" He told her, effectively popping her previously joy filled bubble of wonder.

"Yeah I guess." She mumbled, "It's just that weapons are easier to deal with than people…" She pouted.

"You got to meet some people sometime Ruby." Yang reminded her.

"Why would I do that if I have you two?"

"Actually… Myfriendsjustshowedup, gottagointroducethemtoBrandbye!" Yang rushed out, grabbing her twin's arm and dragging the fire user with her as she mingled with a group of her friend's from Signal, most of which barely even knew Yang _had_ a brother.

Natsu let himself be dragged along by the blond, guessing she had a reason for the manhandling. "You know Ruby could have come with us right?" He asked Yang.

"I know but Ruby has to break out of her shell at some point, so why not sooner rather than latter? Let's give her a chance to make some friends here." Yang told him.

Behind them Natsu heard a small explosion go off. "I get the feeling your plan might backfire."

An hour later found the twins inside the main auditorium of the academy waiting for their younger sister to appear and the headmaster's speech to begin. . ' _Let's see, boring, boring, dull, boring, hot redhead, dull, ginger douchebag, boring, boring, crazy ginger with her green ninja boyfriend, dull, dull, boring, sexy cat girl… wait.'_ Looking closer at the pale girl he had spotted he saw that what he had first thought to be black cat ears were in fact a large bow on top of the girl's head. ' _No, wait, it moved, she's a Faunus. Neat.'_

"Sooo… what was it like, spending so much time in the Grimmlands over the past five years?" Yang asked her brother trying to fill the suffocating silence that had befallen them since the departure of her friends.

Natsu frowned, "It was a rollercoster of boredom and fighting. Most of the time I was traveling I could go weeks not seeing a Grimm, Faunus, or Human only to have to fight off a pack of beowolves and ursi or I would find the remains of a settlement that had been ransacked by Grimm and bandits. For every time I spent a night or two in a town that was still standing I spent twice as long burying more people and digging more unmarked graves than I want to remember… I saved who I could the few times I arrived before the attacks were finished but all that led to was bloody hands and a scared soul. It was hell on Remnant, and I pray to Mavis that you and Ruby never see or do half the things I have." He wasn't exaggerating, between his time as a Fairy Tail wizard and as a wonderer of Remnant he must have killed over a hundred men and women, and that's not counting the hundreds he killed during the Alverez war.

Yang looked at her brother in silent shock. Every time she saw her brother when he did his yearly visits he was so goofy and upbeat, almost like a child really, but looking at him now she saw that his childishness and immaturity was only a vail over the maturity he had been forced to develop after all he had seen and done. It wasn't a pleasant thought, realizing just how little she knew her own twin.

Thankfully Ruby chose that moment to enter the auditorium with Vomit Boy giving Yang the perfect chance to abandon the conversation, pushing what her brother said to the back of her mind. "Ruby!" She called, "Over here! We saved you a spot!"

Waving goodbye to her friend the red themed girl rushed over to her brother and sister her eyes showing her annoyance with her sister.

"So how has your first day been so far little sister?" Yang asked.

"Oh you mean after you ditched me and I exploded?" Ruby rhetorically asked.

"Yikes, meltdown already?" Yang inwardly winced. Maybe she shouldn't have left her alone after all.

"No I mean I literally exploded. There was fire and lighting, and I think some ice?"

"Are you being sarcastic?"

"Nah, I heard the explosion." Natsu cut in, "Happened like two minutes after you dragged me off." He told her.

"Wait, you heard me blow up and _didn't come help me?"_ Ruby demanded.

"Please, it was a tiny explosion. I mean look at you, you're skirt isn't even ripped. It doesn't count as a real explosion unless it causes some damage, otherwise it's just a light show." Natsu waved off.

"That's not the point Brand!" Ruby snapped.

Before the slayer could respond a fourth voice broke into the siblings' conversation. "You!" A short white haired girl snapped at Ruby.

"Oh Oum it's happening again!" Ruby yelped jumping into her brother's arms.

"You're lucky you didn't blow us off the cliff!" The white haired girl snapped.

"So Snowflake here got caught up in your lightshow Ruby?" Natsu asked amused.

"It was an accident!" Ruby cried getting out of her brother's arms and turning to the 'Snowflake' "It was an accident!" She told her.

The girl's only response was to shove an orange pamphlet labeled 'Dust for Dummies' into her face. "What's this?" Ruby asked her.

"The Schnee Dust company is not responsible for any injuries or deaths caused by Schnee company products, please familiarize yourself with this brief guide to safe Dust application in the field." The girl told her in response.

"Wha-"

"You really want to make it up to me?"

"Absolutely." Ruby told her meekly.

"Read this and don't ever talk to me again."

The interaction made Natsu scowl, "Well you're an ass aren't you?" He said bluntly causing the girl to gape at the pink haired boy in shock and rage.

"How dare you! Don't you know who I am?" The girl demanded.

"A bitchy rich girl who thinks she's the second coming of Mavis Vermillion?" Natsu asked sarcastically.

"Who? No, I'm Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust company, the largest producer of Dust in all of Remnant!"

"I don't use Dust. Like at all. Try again." The slayer snarked.

"You don't use Dust? How do you fight? How do you get around?" the now named Weiss Schnee asked august.

"I punch things and walk places."

Before things could develop into a full blown argument or fist fight Yang stepped in, "Woah woah woah hold up. I'm sure you guys just got off on the wrong foot, how about we all start over?" She suggested.

"Good idea Yang!" Ruby cheered holding her hand out to Weiss, "Hello Weiss my name's Ruby! Want to hang out? We could go shopping for school supplies!" Ruby said cheerfully.

The heiress was not impressed, "Yeah and we can go shopping and do our nails and talk about cute boys like tall blond and scraggily over there!" Weiss said in the most condescendingly sarcastic tone Natsu had ever heard as she pointed over to the blond Ruby had entered with.

"Really?" Ruby asked happily.

Weiss just looked at her with a face of stone, "No."

Natsu was about tell off the heiress for being such a jerk to his sister but before he could Ozpin decided to make his presence known. "He-hem." The man coughed into a microphone, "I'll, keep this brief." He said, "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you finish you plan to dedicate your lives to the protection of the people. But as I look among you today, I see nothing but wasted energy. Needing purpose and direction." Here Natsu frowned, he knew exactly what his direction was- kill Acnologia and live life as well as he could to honor his old friends back in Fairy Tail. Simple. Still, Ozpin continued on, "You assume knowledge will free you of this, but you will find that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." With that the man's speech was over and he walked off the stage, his second in command Professor Goodwitch taking his place.

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight." She told them earning a raised eyebrow from Natsu. Several dozen teenagers all in peak physical shape and in a near constant life threatening training program, these people may not have thought things through. "Tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

As it was already approaching nightfall the student hopefuls grabbed a quick dinner at the mess hall and made their way to the ballroom. "It's like a biiiig slumber party!" Yang said cheerfully collapsing on her sleeping bag between her siblings.

"I don't think dad would approve of all the boys though… or the girls since Brand's here." Ruby told her sister.

"I know I do." Yang purred as she watched several boys flexing and wrestling each other shirtless.

"… There are like, three attractive girls in this whole room." Natsu said to no one in particular.

"Including the two of us?" Yang asked.

"No."

Yang looked around the room, taking in the forms of her fellow females. Sure none of them could compete with her looks but there were at least ten girls she would label as attractive if not straight up hot. "You have some high standards bro."

"I've met some pretty beautiful women Yang."

"Sure you did, and you all had a sex party." She joked, obviously not believing him.

"Never had a straight up party, but I did sleep with a few of them. Lisanna, Mirajane, Erza, Cana, Lucy that one time, Kagura, Millianna, Brandish once, Sayla, Hisui…" Natsu counted off.

"Holy crap!" Yang yelped, "How many girls have you had sex with?!" She demanded.

"I think that's it actually. Why?"

"You are s _eventeen_ and you already slept with ten girls and you are wondering why I think that's a problem?"

"We spent a lot of time in life or death situations with little or no adult supervision. We trusted eachother, needed stress relief or to reassure ourselves the other was alive, celebrations, drinking contests, shared bathes… frankly I'm amazed I didn't turn out like Gildarts or Uncle Qrow sometimes."

"Can we not talk about Brand's sex life please?" Ruby pleaded obviously uncomfortable with the subject. She wasn't as innocent as Yang treated her whenever boys were brought up but no one was ever comfortable talking about a family member's sex life.

"… Fine. This isn't over Brand." Yang assured him.

"I still fail to see the problem."

"That girl…" Ruby mumbled stopping the argument from continuing.

"What girl?" Yang asked.

"The black haired one in the corner with a book. She was the one who got Weiss to stop screaming at me after I blew up some of her Dust storage."

Looking over at the girl Ruby was now pointing at Natsu saw that it was actually the Faunus girl with the large bow that he had noticed earlier while waiting for Ruby to arrive at the auditorium.

"Well lets go talk to her then and say thanks!" Yang told her, grabbing the younger girl's hand and dragging her over to the raven haired beauty, ignoring her sister's protests and her brother's laughter.

Following his sisters over to the reading teen Natsu caught the tail end of their conversation. "Yeah, this girl's a lost cause." Yang told Ruby when the girl rebuffed the two girls.

"No such thing Yang." Natsu told his twin as he joined them, "Hi, I'm Brand, these two's brother." He introduced himself.

The girl gave him a brief look before returning to her book, "Weird name." Was all she said.

"Blame my mother for that one." Natsu told her with a slight scowl, "She's pretty egotistical."

That seemed to get the golden eyed girl's attention, "How so?" She asked him.

"Brand has three meanings. A tool used to mark something as your property, the act of marking something, and the mark itself. My mother named me Brand as her way of saying that it will be her bloodline that will leave its mark on the world, that I am but a tool that will be used to leave a legacy of her bloodline behind. Real mother of the year material right?" Natsu explained.

"She must have been a very… _interesting_ person to live with." Blake conformed.

Natsu just smirked, "I spent most of my time traveling the Grimmlands, didn't really live with either of my parents after I turned twelve."

"You left? Why?" Blake asked him.

"Personal reasons. Maybe I'll tell you someday, but seeing as I don't even know your name…" Natsu prompted.

The girl smiled, "Blake Belladonna. Nice to meet you."

"Right back at you kitty cat." Natsu told her with a wink.

Blake's eyes widened in shock and fear at having been found out, "Ho-"

"Your bow looks like cat ears." Natsu told her, "Thought it was fitting." He told her with a look that clearly said ' _I know, but I won't tell'._

"Oh… um, is there anything else I'm supposed to call you then?" Blake covered her shock as best she could.

Natsu smiled at the opening she had given him, "While I was traveling I went by Natsu, and some people called me Salamander. You can use those if you want."

Blake's eyes nearly popped out of her skull at the names, "Wait, _you're_ Natsu the Salamander?!" She had heard the name a lot during her time in the White Fang, Natsu Dragneel also known as the Salamander and the Fire Dragon, was someone who the Fang had gotten numerous reports about over the past five years. They had believed that he could be a lizard Faunus based on some of the descriptions that the people he had helped had given but inconsistencies had prevented them for knowing for sure.

"Wait, what?" Ruby asked, "You went by a fake name Brand? And how does Blake know it?"

"Well Brand always made me think of mom and Natsu means 'summer' so I figured that it was better to use it instead. As for why Blake knows my name, well let's just say I led an interesting life while I traveled." Natsu told his sister. "Now come on, we have to get up really early tomorrow, let's get some sleep."

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 **Right so the gang is at Beacon and the fun stuff is fast approaching. We got a brief look at why Natsu seems so OOC and mature, people who were confused/ pissed off at Natsu's name change got that settled, and the door to future interactions with Blake has been opened.**

 **Tell me what you guys think in the Reviews!**

 **PS: If you leave a flame I will read it and leave it with the rest of the Reviews, but please be logged in when you leave it so I can respond, and actually say why you hate the story instead of just saying it sucks. That's not helpful and it really is a waste of all our times.**


	5. Chapter 4- Into the Forest

**To make up for how long it took last time, and because I'm not going to have access to my laptop or wifi from the 12th to the 28th, I sat down and got this done for you all. Hope its not too bad. Read, Enjoy, Review.**

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The next day dawned clear and crisp, a perfect sunny day, and the children of Tai Yang Xiao Long found themselves in the process of gathering their equipment for their upcoming initiation test. Well, the girls were, Natsu just got dressed and decided to hang around with them.

"I wonder what those two are so worked up about." Ruby wondered, referring to the green ninja and his crazy girlfriend that Natsu had seen the night before.

"Oh who knows?" Yang waved the question off. "So you seem awfully chipper this morning." The blond observed.

"Did you just say 'chipper'? Who says 'chipper' anymore?" Natsu teased her.

"Awesome blond bombshells. Shut up. Ruby?"

"Er. I'm happy because we're finally done with all the awkward small talk or getting to know you stuff." She said as she took out her sniper-scythe Crescent Rose From here on I can let my sweetheart do the talking." She told them, cooing at her weapon like it was actually a baby or small dog.

"You do remember that you're not the only one going through initiation today right sis?" Natsu asked, "You will have to meet new people if you want to continue to be a Huntress and grow." Natsu told her.

"Ugh, you sound like Daaad." She whined. "First of all what does meeting people have to do with fighting, and secondly I don't need people to help me grow up. I drink milk." She said with a touch of… was that pride? Or was she mocking them?

"But what about when we form teams?" Yang asked her.

"Well, I sorta thought I could be on a team with you two…" She admitted.

"Maybe you should be on someone else's team…" Yang suggested, pulling lightly on her hair. Natsu raised an eyebrow at his twin, was she saying what he thought she was saying?

"My dearest sister Yang, are you implying that you do not want to be on the same team as me?" Ruby demanded slightly hurt.

"What? No, of course I do. I'm just saying, maybe it will help you break out of your shell that's all."

"Wha-? I don't need to break out of my shell! That's absolutely-"

"Ridiculous!" And there was Vomit Boy. Remarkable timing really.

Natsu laughed, "Get started on lacing up your boots Ruby. I'm going to go scope out the competition." He told them walking after the blond boy. Had to start somewhere right?

As luck would have it he found him with Weiss Schnee and the hot redhead from the auditorium. "Yo Wheeze how's it going?" He asked her.

The small white haired girl was not amused, "My name is _Weiss_ you dunce." She snarled.

"Yeah yeah." He waved her off, "So who are you two?" He asked the redhead and blond boy.

The girl seemed a little shocked that he would ask, "Oh, um. I'm Pyrrha. Pyrrha Nikos." The girl introduced herself.

"Jaune Arc, nice to meet you." The blond said.

"Brand Xiao Long. Call me Natsu." He told her earning a widened pair of eyes.

"Natsu? As in Natsu Dragneel? I heard you were a wanderer in the Grimmlands." She told him.

Natsu scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Yeah, that's me. I figured I'd get a license, makes it easier to go between the kingdoms than just being a nomad." He told her, avoiding the real reason he wanted into the organization.

The girl nodded, "I know what you mean. Even getting permission to come to Beacon was a bit difficult for me, despite my fame." She told him before wincing when she noticed what she had let slip.

"Fame? What did you do?" He asked.

"You don't know either?" Weiss cut back into the conversation shocked, "She won the Minstrel Regional tournament four years in row!" She told him haughtily.

"The what now?" Natsu asked.

"That's what I said." Jaune told him.

"What is wrong with you idiots?" Weiss asked rudely, "the Minstrel tournament is the biggest lower combat school fighting event in the world, Pyrrha's victories in it prove that she is the greatest fighter of our generation!" Weiss told them angrily much to said girl's embarrassment.

"Says who?" Natsu asked, "It's not like everyone in our age group around the world was a part of it right? I sure as hell wasn't, and neither were my sisters or Jaune here. For all you know we could kick her ass!"

"I highly doubt a ruffian like you could beat a combative prodigy like Pyrrha." Weiss told him condescendily.

"Weiss, perhaps you should give them a chance." Pyrrha told her, "After all Natsu is right, neither of us has ever seen him or Jaune fight before."

"Trust me Pyrrha this buffoon isn't worth either of our times."

Before Natsu could show her what he thought of her little comment the school's speaker systems came on, "Would all first year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation." Goodwitch's voice rang out, "Again will all first year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation."

Natsu cast Weiss a confident smirk, "Get ready to eat your words Wheeze." He told her walking away.

"It's Weiss!"

Twenty minutes later found the initiates at the Cliffs, lined up on the metal squares that ran along its edge waiting for the Headmaster's instructions. "For years you have trained to become warriors," Ozpin began, "and today your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." He told them before Goodwitch took over.

"I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about teams." She said, "Allow me to put an end to your confusion. You will all be given teammates. Today." On the other side of Jaune Natsu heard Ruby whimper at the announcement.

Ozpin took this moment to talk again "These teammates will be here for the remainder of your time here at Beacon, so it is within your best interests to partner with someone with whom you can work well." Que another whimper from Ruby. "That being said, the next person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

' _I think Ruby's world just shattered."_ Natsu chuckled.

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die." Ozpin told them. "Now, due to a last minute entry we were left with an odd number of students, because of this one of you will not be getting a partner, and will instead will have twice the challenge and only half the chance of passing. Should the unpartnered individual show enough promise they will be enrolled, if not I'm afraid they will have to try again next year." Ozpin informed the gathered hopefuls.

' _Hope its me.'_ Natsu thought to himself, ' _would leave me more fun.'_

"That being said, you will all be monitored and evaluated throughout the exam, but no instructor will intervene." He warned them earning a fearful gulp from Jaune.

"You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will be regarded on that item, along with your standing, and be graded appropriately. Any questions?"

"Yeah, um sir-?" Jaune raised his hand.

"Good. Take your positions." Ozpin ordered prompting the gathered teens to take offensive stances.

"Uh sir? I have a uh question." Jaune asked as Weiss was propelled into the forest by the now revealed to be spring loaded metal plate beneath her.

"So this, landing strategy thing uh, w-what is it?" He asked as several more students were launched into the air. "Are you like, dropping us off or something?"

"No." Ozpin told him, "You will be falling."

"Oh, I see. Did you like hand out parachutes for us?"

"No, you will be using your own landing strategy." And their goes Yang and Ruby.

"So uh, what exactly is a landing strategyyyy!" Jaune screamed as he was thrown into the air.

Natsu couldn't help himself, "I get the feeling that he was homeschooled." He joked earning a small smirk from the headmaster before the Dragon Slayer was thrown into the air with the rest of the perspective students.

For a moment Natsu simply let himself sail through the open air, remembering the times that Happy had carried him across the skies both in battle and out. It was times like this, when he felt the absolute freedom that flying provided that he envied the blue Exeed even if he himself could fly with his flames he could never obtain the skill and grace that the little cat like being possessed naturally. After another brief moment to savor the feeling of flight Natsu decided it was time to begin his mission.

Calling forth his magic Natsu ignited the soles of his feet, turning them into makeshift thrusters and granting him control over his flight. Angeling his feet he turned his forward momentum upward, turning all the way over in a large loop and shooting toward the ground, landing at only half the distance the next student had traveled in flight.

Looking around the his landing point Natsu saw… trees, trees, and more trees. ' _What exactly was I expecting?'_ Natsu asked himself, ' _It's called the Emerald Forest, it's a forest.'_ The wizard sighed, ' _there had better be a whole bunch of Grimm between here and the Temple or this is going to be the most boring test I've ever taken.'_ Shaking his head the Slayer cast out his sensory magics to locate his fellow students and if he was lucky pick up of the bloodlust of some Grimm to punch.

' _Let's see here, Ruby's near Wheeze, good luck with that sis, Yang's near Blake, Vomit Boy's near Pyrrha, and I have no idea who the rest of these people are. Right, just got to avoid everyone so that I don't get a partner and pick up a hunk of junk at the north end. Easy.'_ Natsu told himself. With a quick glance at the rising sun the teen found which direction was north and started running at a sedate pace.

What Natsu hadn't counted on was how few Grimm would be allowed so close to the school's grounds. He expected to be fighting non-stop, a chance to cut loose after two freaking weeks of doing nothing but walking back home and watching his sisters pack. It took a whole ten minutes before he encountered any Grimm, in this case a half dozen common beowolves that were, like most Grimm, dumber than posts. ' _Better than nothing I guess.'_ Smirking Natsu cracked his knuckles and got ready for a… disappointing fight.

The first wolf came from his left, leaping forward with its jaws wide and claws bared. It's life ended with a punch to the face and a shattered skull. Seeing their comrade's body fall to the ground the five remaining beowolves charged forward, intent on ripping the pink haired teen to shreds. Ducking beneath one's leap the fire user planted his hands on the ground and kicked upward crushing the wolf's chest cavity and ending its life. Landing on his feet he grabbed the next wolf be the neck. A quick squeeze was all it took to end its life.

Turning to face the two remaining lesser Grimm, Natsu lost the smirk he had begun with. He always forgot how fragile lower level Grimm tended to be. He could shatter enchanted steel with a punch, and could even dent Gajeel's Iron Dragon Scales with his bare hands if given enough time, most Grimm just didn't compare. For crying out loud even some common magical beasts on Earthland could take at least one or two of his none magical strikes before kicking the bucket!

Deciding that he had wasted enough time Natsu charged the remaining beasts in a burst of speed, appearing before the Grimm before either could react. With his left hand he struck the right one in the side of its head causing it to explode in a shower of smoking gore. Using the momentum from his punch the Slayer spun on his left heel and brought up his other leg to strike the last monster in its snout killing the beast in the same manner as its packmate.

"Pathetic." Natsu grumbled. It had been so long since he had a true challenge in combat, ever since he was ten and he began to learn how to tap into the power he had held in his first life the other residents of this world began to lose the sense of danger they once held, and now that he not only regained his full power, but surpassed his old limitations he may as well be a lion fighting small mice. ' _Maybe I should start holding back more.'_ He thought, ' _Fight with skill instead of strength. I spent years practicing how to fight hand-to-hand after all, why practice my form if I'm not gonna use it?'_ Pushing the thought aside for the moment Natsu resumed his trek toward the Temple's location. He had a mission to complete after all.

* * *

 **Okay so Natsu met some people, his reputation is shown to be widely known, everyone has gotten launched off a cliff, and the Dragon Slayer has started to show just how far above his fellow student's fighting capabilities he is.**

 **Please tell me what you all think and let me know if you think I should have Natsu have a seal like in the previous version or if he should just hold back after the test (read after he's done showing off and nukes a bunch of Grimm with Dragon fire).**

 **Remember to Review and hopefully I'll update another story or post a one shot or something before I leave.**

 **Wingd Knight out.**


	6. Chapter 5- The Test

**Yes it has been a long time since I updated this story- but this time I have a legit excuse. My old laptop finally broke down for good, and I not only lost the ability to post at all for a month before I got a new one for Christmas, but the outline I had for this story was lost so I have no idea where the hell I was going with this. I figured I'd just write up a new story and forget about this one (yes, yes that makes me sound evil but its not like a lot of other authors don't do the same thing for worst reasons) but I realized that the TWO other full length stories I sent out and the one shot drabble I wrote got barely any response so I came back to this where I have a good following... plus I just found out that the original version of this story lost its #1 rank for the section and felt sad.**

 **Now that** _that's_ **been explained I just want to say, yes my writing style is a bit different and my characters seem even more OOC. Truth is I haven't watched or read Fairy Tail since it ended, and I haven't rewatched seasons 1 or 2 of RWBY since I last posted a chapter for this story soooo. Yeah.**

 **Now, Read, Enjoy, Follow, Favorite, REVIEW, show the love, and lets aim to get this story to the number one for the Fairy Tail RWBY crossovers!**

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Running through the forest Natsu was bored out of his mind. In the Grimlands the creatures of Grimm were at least interesting to look at, and some could even take a weak punch or two, but the Grimm in the Emerald forest were so _dull._ It was all Beowolves and Ursi, and even when he held back as much as he could they went down in three hits at the _most._ He didn't even have to use any actual skill to beat these things, and the whole reason he decided to hold back in the first place was to _use_ skill. This _sucked_!

Natsu made it through the entire forest in barely an hour, arriving at the ruins holding the relics at the same time as his twin, who he knew for a fact traveled at least three times the distance he did while in the air. ' _Must of gotten held up enjoying one of her fights, probably forgot about the whole test.'_ Natsu thought.

"Brand?" Yang called out her twin's name, "How did you beat us here? I had a huge head start on you!"

Natsu laughed, "You must of gotten held up playing around with the fodder Yang!" He joked, "Did you see Ruby on your way in? I never got to see her use Crescent Rose in action before and this seems like a good time as any." He said excitedly.

Yang just looked at her brother in shock, ' _Did he just call the Grimm here Fodder? These things are like twice as strong as the ones on Patch and he thinks they're just Fodder!? What the hell was he doing when he traveled?'_ Yang asked herself, a small twinge of jealousy for her brother's strength twisting her stomach, just like every time she compared their abilities. "I haven't seen Ruby yet, guess she got a different partner," The blond told the red eyed teen, "speaking of which!" Yang grinned, "Meet mine, you remember Blake right?"

"Hard to forget." Natsu told her, unknowingly sounding quite flirty, "You got lucky Kitty Cat, Yang here really knows how to do things with a bang!" He told the cat faunus with a wide smile.

Blake looked at the pinket with a deadpan expression, "Joy."

"Heads uuuup!" A high pitched voice called out from above, revealing the little red murder machine that Yang and Natsu called their sister falling from the sky. Natsu prepared to jump up and catch the falling girl, but was spared from having to play the hero thanks to Jaune sidelining her out of the air and into a tree.

"Where did he come from?" Natsu asked the girls beside him.

"No idea." Yang told him.

"Was that your two's sister?" Blake quarried.

"Oh yeah." Natsu assured her.

A sudden ursa's growl stopped any further conversation as the beast in question seemed to scramble into the clearing the three huntsmen trainees were in. Natsu grinned, another fight seemed to have come to him! His joy turned to confusion however when the beast fell flat on its face revealing the crazy orange haired girl he had seen the day before riding on the soulless beast's back.

Blake was the one to break the stunned silence, "Did that girl just ride in here on an ursa?" She asked no one.

"Yep." Natsu answered anyway.

While the crazy girl, who the green ninja following her identified as Nora went to check out the chess pieces that passed as the year's relics, Pyrrha Nikos decided to make an appearance, bursting into the clearing with a decent sized Deathstalker on her tail. Not the biggest Natsu had seen or killed, but bigger than a good deal of its brethren that existed so close to a major populated area.

"Did she just run all the way here with a Deathstalker on her tail?" Blake asked again.

"She did." Natsu confirmed, Ruby coming to stand by his side.

It was at that point that Yang decided that she had had enough, "Uhg! I can't take it anymore!" She yelled, her semblance turning her eyes a red to match her brother's and setting her hair aflame, "Can everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again!?" She demanded.

One could almost hear the ticking of a clock in the distance as the recently named Nora and Ren stepped up beside the four, Jaune still stuck in a tree off to the side. "Uh, Yang?" Ruby tapped her sister's shoulder pointing upwards.

Following her direction the group looked up and low and behold, there was something crazy. Namely Weiss Schnee, the bitchy albino herself, hanging from the claw of a rather large Nevermore. By non-Grimlands standards anyway.

"How could you leave me?!" the heiress screamed, most likely at Ruby.

"I said jump." Ruby called back.

"She's gonna fall." Blake told them.

"She'll be fine." Ruby assured.

"She's falling." Ren deadpanned.

"Who cares? She made the fall into the forest, she can make this." Natsu snorted. Really, Schnee was a direct combat type, it wasn't like she was Lucy, a summoner type.

Jaune apparently didn't share these sentiments upon freeing himself from the tree he had crashed into branches, and jump off of said tree to catch the falling heiress. Both end up hitting the ground hard, Weiss sitting on Jaune's back and mocking him as a result.

"HA!" Natsu laughed, "And people say I don't think before I act!"

Ruby gave her brother a deadpan look, "You ran away into the Grimm Lands at twelve bringing only what you were wearing ,shorts and a t-shirt." She reminded him, "You don't think."

"Can we maybe talk about this when there _aren't_ two giant Grimm right next to us?" Ren broke in.

"Sheese, you guys are such drama queens." Natsu yawned. "Hey Ruby, grab me a relic will ya? I'll take out the bug and bird."

"One, scorpions are not bugs." Blake told the other teen, "Two, it won't be easy, Deathstalkers are seen as B-Class grimm. They are as dangerous as a whole pack of Ursa, we need to be smart."

"... It's a _Deathstalker_." Natsu groaned, "Seriously, it's not a big deal." He waved off her concerns. Before any of the other huntsmen trainees could stop him, the Dragon Slayer ignited his feet and propelled himself toward the bus sized abomination, his fist already drawn back and ablaze ready to deliver a dragon fire powered punch to the face. "Let's see what you got!" Natsu taunted the Grimm, his flaming fist striking the scorpion like monster in the center of its face.

The sound of the contact was like a bomb, shockwaves blew across the entire clearing, blowing the hair and clothes of the other student hopefuls back with its force. The Deathstalker itself did not get off so easily however. Its white and red exoskeleton- a surface stronger than steel- shattered under the force of the Dragon Slayer's attack. The scarlet flames ate away the monster's obsidian flesh turning it into ash and smoke. In an instant the whole front half of the Grimm was disintegrated by the power of the fire dragon's might.

Returning to a more relaxed stance Natsu looked at his extinguished fist, a frown on his face, "Damn, it was even weaker than I thought. I'll need to hold back more if I want a decent fight." Natsu grumbled. Above him the Giant Nevermore shrieked, earning it the disappointed Slayer's attention. "Normally I'd be all for another fight, but flyers aren't as fun." Natsu said absently. Quickly inhaling the fire mage spat a large ball of fire at the swooping birdlike Grimm, burning it to ash even faster than the Deathstalker, its feathers and lack of bone armor making it a much softer target. Natsu sighed, "Damn it, I thought this test would be fun." He complained. "Let's just get the stupid relics and get out of here, I'm hungry." He whined turning to face his sisters, their partners, and the assortment of other trainees, only to be greeted with a group of shocked faces looking at him like he was the most shocking creature they had ever seen. "What?" He asked them, "Did you all want a go? You didn't miss out on anything, trust me." He assured them.

Ren was the one who broke the suffocating silence, "You just killed a Deathstalker with a face punch." He said slowly, seemingly in a state of shock, "and breathed a giant fireball to kill a fully grown Nevermore." He continued.

Natsu looked at him with a confused look, "Yeah. So?" He asked, "They were pretty weak, like I said, you didn't really miss out on much."

"Weak." Weiss cut in, "You call two high ranking Grimm, the kind that even some fully trained Huntsman could have problems with, weak." She affirmed.

"Fully trained huntsmen have problems with these things? Really? Wow." Natsu said with a look of disability before a wide grin broke his face, "I must be even more awesome than I thought!" He laughed.

Yang looked at her twin in awe. She had trouble fighting an Ursa Major- a C class Grimm- and here he was one shotting two Grimm leagues more powerful than she had ever even seen in person, let alone fought herself. Once more she felt that twinge in her gut, the feeling of jealousy and self doubt. They were twins! There shouldn't be such a huge gap between them! She trained for _years_ to get where she was now. She spent months designing and forging Ember Celica, she had spent even longer finding and studying under hand to hand combat experts, both Huntsmen and civilians, her teachers had told her she was one of the most talented boxers they had ever trained. And yet her brother, who never even set foot in a combat school before yesterday, who taught himself everything he knew about fighting past how to make a fist, someone who didn't have a weapon, never spent gruelling hours breaking down his technique to build from the ground up after every lose, was her superior in every way when it came to combat. He was faster, stronger, had more energy be it physical or metaphysical, he was a more skilled fighter and real time strategist, everything she had dedicated her life to since the day she learned the truth about her mother Brand beat her. It wasn't _fair_ damn it!

Yang shook her head quickly, dispelling her train of thought before she could sink too far into it. It wasn't the time. They were still in the forest, and the test was still going on. "Whatever," She said loudly, stopping the others conversation, "The things are dead, so let's just grab our relics and get back to the cliff before any more show up." She told them.

Ruby nodded in agreement with her sister, "Yang's right, we still got a test to complete."She reminded them.

The rest of the gathered initiates nodded, each pair hurting over to the pedestals that held the relics and taking one for themselves. Ruby and Yang each took a white horse piece, Nora and Jaune white rooks, and Natsu grabbing the lone white queen- liking how the top had a bunch of little spikes going around it.

After making sure all their pieces were safe and secure on their persons the teens exchanged one last silent look at eachother before nodding and heading back for the cliff that had launched them into the forest at the beginning of the test. Their initiation was over, it was time to take the next step in their journy to become Huntsmem, graduating college.

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 **Sorry about the ending, I didn't know how to end it and had nothing else to say this chapter. *cough* Anyway hope you enjoyed, and be sure to leave me a review telling me what you think.**

 **PS: I am a student, and I usually take a summer job and don't work during the school year, but this winter my car broke down and I had to get the engine repaired which drained me of a good chunk of my savings, showing me the flaw in that logic. As such I set up a P atre on. I will soon load all chapters of this story to my account and will be posting chapters well in advance over there both for this story and others that I'm working on. If you want to show your support for my writing, or want to pretty much force me to be more freaking consistent with my updating, please check me out and make a pledge at: P atre on.c om (slash) Wingdknight**

 **With that all said I take my leave,**

 **Wingd Knight out.**


	7. Chapter 6- Teams and Suspicions

**Right, first off, thank you all for the revived interest shown in this story. Glad to see I still have a fan base. Maybe I really can get this story to number 1. Next, this chapter has been on my P at reon since I posted the last chapter, just gonna let you take that as you will. There is no advanced chapters on it as of this post, seeing as it is midterm week for me, (which is why I'm posting this now, to make you guys know I was serious about getting back to this story and that it will take a bit to get the next one done) I'm busy doing stuff for that, and I want to see that I'm not failing at least one thing (please do not mention anything about midterms in your reviews). Anyway, like always read, enjoy, REVIEW.**

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Oscar Ozpin was without a doubt one of the oldest souls in all of Remnant. He had existed since the dawn of the Grimm, had seen the moon shatter, and was the driving force that forged many of humanity's greatest heroes. Yet never in his long life as a professor, a warrior, a wanderer, a politician, or even his first life as a wizard had he ever met someone quite like Brand Xiao Long.

The way he fought was brash, straight forward, and incredibly effective. His raw strength was greater than even those of the same age with Semblances that revolves around their own, his speed was in a similar boat as well. If he didn't know any better he would say that the boy's own Semblance was a physical enhancement type far surpassing any other he had seen, but the child's power was nothing of the sort. His file- confirmed through Ozpin's own eyes- was a rare elemental type, Fire to be specific. The power to command one of the forces of nature without the use of Dust was normally reserved for the Maidens that he had created so long ago, but there was the occasional huntsman or huntress who held a watered down version of an element of nature. Brand however did not have a 'watered down' power over the element of Fire, if anything his power was greater than even the Maidens and his Aura supported this, it was immense! It almost didn't seem… natural.

Ozpin frowned. Qrow had told him of his nephew's near constant travel. How he had left home at such a young age to seek power a year after the death of his stepmother. Could it be that Salem found the boy and saw his potential? Could his power over Fire not be his Semblance but the missing power of the Fall Maiden, pushed to its zenith by the boy's tremendous raw power? Could that power be Salem's doing as well? Had she somehow altered the boy, turned him into a weapon to be used against the kingdoms? It was unlikely, but Salem has proven herself capable of turning people to her side before. He would have to keep an eye on the lone son of the Xiao Long family.

Ozpin shook his head to clear it. It was not the time to dwell on paranoid suspicions, he had students to announce.

The coming year was made up of ten teams of four, along with one extra student as a result of Ms. Rose's recruitment that would be used as a reinforcement for teams going on the more dangerous missions given to their year. Despite this however Ozpin would have to admit that only three teams and the extra student- Xiao Long himself- interested him in any way. The soon to be christened teamed CRDL, JNPR, and RWBY, each caught his attention for different reasons.

CRDL was made up of the biggest racists of the year, possibly even the whole school and Ozpin knew that they would be a problem. A problem made worse with their soon to be leader Cardin's familial connections.

JNPR not only had the only male child of the rather large Arc family and the only one of his generation in the family of heroes to pursue the career of a Huntsman, but also Pyrrha Nikos, a combat prodigy the likes of which he hadn't seen in over a hundred years and Lie Ren, whose unique Semblance allowed even the most hysterical soul to be hidden from the Grimm… oh and there was Nora Valkyrie, she was very good with a hammer and made lots of things go 'boom'.

Finally there was RWBY. Ruby Rose herself was a very skilled armed combatant and weapon designer, along with being a Silver Eyed warrior in the making. Her sister Yang Xiao Long, the twin of the possible danger Brand, was just as skilled in unarmed combat, and could take more blunt force damage than anyone Ozpin had seen in at least three generations. Blades could be her downfall however, the girl needed to learn to dodge instead of tanking every hit with zero armor. The two girl's partners were different matters entirely. Blake Belladonna was the daughter of the closest thing the peaceful Faunus of the world had to a leader and was a former terrorist and possibly assassin. Weiss Schnee was the heiress of the largest company in the world and was as prideful as they came, she could be the cause of a great deal of issues within her team if she did not learn to be more humble. The aged headmaster foresaw definite conflict in their future, though the question remained on weather they would be able to overcome it.

Finished with his thoughts, the headmaster stepped forward to announce the years teams. He had a feeling the year would be quite interesting.

Natsu watched as the newly minted team CRDL left the stage with a frown. Those guys rubbed him the wrong way. Cardin especially, he just had an air of 'I'm a jackass' about him. Dick.

"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, and Nora Valkyrie." Ozpin called out, the four named students coming forward diligently, "The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces, from this day forward you will work together as team JNPR." He announced, "Lead by: Jaune Arc." the older man declared.

Natsu nodded slightly, agreeing with the man's judgment. Jaune was definitely the weakest physically, and moved more like a dancer than a fighter of any form, but he had the strongest Aura of the four, and weather that was due to dedicating most of his time training in its use or because of natural blessings it set him up to be a defensive combatant, capable of taking blows that would put others in his weight class down in stride. Putting him in charge would insure that it would be that much harder for their team to lose their leader and thus their strategist and field commander, something that could very well lead to all their deaths. Proper communication was important in a combat unit, even team Natsu back on Earthland had a leader they all more or less listened to when the four worked together- that being Erza.

Giving Jaune the leadership role would also push him to improve his abilities and skills to keep up with the other members of his team, making him feel like he was holding them back if he didn't. His view was cemented when he saw Pyrrha give her partner a celebratory shoulder punch, knocking him over. Yes, Natsu had the feeling that like Hisui, Jaune would no doubt seek to improve himself to feel more worthy of his position.

"Next," Ozpin continued, "Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward you will work together as, team RWBY. Lead by: Ruby Rose." He told them.

Natsu smiled at that, also agreeing with this appointment. Yang was too brash, and often forgot both her own limitations and that she could take more and stronger hits than most others. Weiss from what he was able to learn during their short interactions was too eager to prove herself, was stuck up, and would more than likely go on a power trip or break down under the pressure she put herself under if she became the team leader. Blake had the problems of some minor self loathing, not being able to face her Faunus heritage for whatever reason, and that she was so closed off that she wouldn't be able to communicate properly as the leader or make the proper bonds with her subordinates, she needed help breaking out of her shell before she was able to properly make the necessary bonds with her team. Ruby wasn't perfect, but the responsibility would push her to mature and think things through before acting instead of rushing in with her scythe swinging like she was wont to do. Sure Natsu did the same thing, but he had the power, durability, and healing factor to do so without suffering too many consequences. Ruby was fragil, tiny, and squishy, and she didn't have a healing factor that could heal anything short of severed limbs or instant kill injuries without long term negative effects.

"Finally we have Brand Xiao Long," Ozpin said, bringing Natsu back to the real world, "You retrieved the white queen piece, the one relic with no pair, and have no partner due to the odd number of students arriving this year." He announced both to Natsu and the room at large, "As such you will be working with no team, and will instead be relegated to support for other teams on higher risk missions."

Natsu grinned at the headmaster, "So I only get the fun missions? Nice."

Ozpin raised an eyebrow at the teen's bravo, "Yes. The 'fun' missions." he confirmed with a raised eyebrow. "Now I believe curfew is coming up. All students to your dorms. Room numbers and pass codes have been delivered to your scrolls. Goodnight."

Natsu followed his sisters, their partners, and team JNPR to the dorms after Ozpin dismissed them from the team forming ceremony. It had been a long day for the others but to Natsu it was one of the more dull ones he had experienced. Weak monsters, a fetch quest, and being told he was working solo. Nothing exciting _at all._

"Today had been awesome!" Ruby cried, "We kicked _tons_ of Grimm butt, got our teams, and Juane and I got team leader! How cool is that?" She asked rhetorically.

Yang grinned at the youngest of the group, "I told you you'd be the bee's knees sis." she told her, "believe me now?"

Ruby blushed at her sister's praise. "I don't know about that Yang, but I guess this does kinda ruin my plan of being a normal student huh?"

Natsu snorted at that, "Normal is boring Ruby. Besides your a five foot nothing girl who wears a cape and has a weapon fetish, you were never going to be seen as the 'normal' one anyway." He told her. "The most normal looking one here in Jaune and he's carrying around a sword that could double as a museum exhibit."

Jaune looked at the pink haired teen in surprise at that, "What do you mean by that? Sure Crocea Mors is old, but I doubt any museum would want this old thing."

Natsu looked at the blonde confused, "You're kidding right?" He asked, "You don't know anything about the history of your own weapon?" That was freaking crazy, even for someone who put so little stock in history as Natsu. He knew the complete history of the Fire Dragons, of Fairy Tail, and most of the history of Dragon Slayer Magic and the past of Zeref, and if _he_ knew the stories behind all of that, than someone like Jaune- a huntsman trainee- should know the history of his family and their legendary weapon.

"Jaune Crocea Mors is the only surviving weapon from the era of the founding of the four kingdoms. Your ancestors used it to kill armies of Grimm each, some of them slaying even Dragon Grimm, and at least half of them are recorded as killing at least one megalomaniac nutcase bent on genocide or world domination or something." Natsu told him. "It's made of the strongest metal ever known, the name, origin, and smelting process lost to the sands of time! The thing is damn near indestructible!" He went on, "Its known as the sword of generals, heroes, and kings! Hell at least three of the previous wielders had harems of the most beautiful warrior women of their time!"

Jaune looked at his sword in a new found sense of awe. "I… never knew." he whispered. "Wow. I have a _lot_ more to live up to than I thought." He said, sagging at the revelation. His partner just patted his back in a show of silent support.

Yang looked at her twin in surprise, "How the heck do you know all that?" She asked.

Natsu just shrugged, "I got around a lot the past five years." He told her, "Met a lot of people in a lot of different towns and villages. People like to talk. Some places claimed to be built on the site of some ancient battle, others say they are descended of some hero or another, or that the town was the birthplace of some great warrior. I guess I just picked up some stuff. Stories about the Arcs are pretty popular pretty much all over the world." He said. "It's like those stories about the Maidens, or the Man with Two Souls."

"How did you not know of your family's legacy Jaune?" Weiss asked the blonde boy, "One would think your father or grandfather would be quite adamant about you knowing it."

Jaune winced at the heiresses condescending tone, "My mom and dad didn't want me to be a huntsman." He told them, "And with my grandfather dying when I was little I guess no one was around who wanted to fill my head with old war stories about my ancestors."

Blake nodded her head slightly at that, "Makes sense. If your parents didn't want you to be a huntsman they would try to avoid glamorizing it to you. Out of curiosity, what did they want you to become?" She asked.

Jaune shrugged, "Mom wanted me to be a dance instructor but my dad wanted me to be a chef. He always said girls loved men who can cook."

"He wasn't wrong." Natsu told him, "Cooking is a great way to impress girls- or guys. Remember, all sentient beings want three things: Food, Sleep, and Sex. Keep that in mind and you're already halfway to getting a girl… or a guy." Natsu said with a firm nod.

Weiss looked at the wizard in mortification, "Oum, have you no shame?" She demanded, "Talking about that stuff in front of women! Did you grow up in a cave?"

"Oh relax Sneeze, it's not like I went into detail. I'm just saying that at the end of the day humans and Faunus are animals, and animals all want the same three things. Its nature. Jeez." He rolled his eyes.

Before Weiss could continue to berate the Slayer on his crassness, Ren noticed that they had arrived at their dorms and decided it was best to quickly defuse the situation before things got out of hand. "Look." He cut in, "These are our dorms. We are all tired from initiation and crabby from spending all day fighting for our lives, so why don't we all get some sleep before we say anything we will regret later?" He reasoned, "and remember we still have classes tomorrow, and I doubt we will impress any of our professors if we show up tearing at eachothers' throats." He added.

"Ren's right." Ruby agreed, "Lets all get some sleep."

Natsu shrugged, "Okay." He agreed, "Night everybody!" He bade them off, unlocking his new room as he did.

The two teams bade their own pleasant evenings as well and went their separate ways, more than ready for a good night's sleep. They would need it after all, that had been their last day of freedom, tomorrow classes began.

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 **Right, a bit longer than the average one I put out. This chapter sets up a few things from the original that I actually liked- ie Ozpin's thoughts on Natsu and Cardin's connections- but also kind of jumped around because this is very much a filler chapter that I wrote simply because it was required due to plot. Nothing of substance happened but foundations of things you all actually _want_ to see has had groundwork set. Be sure to tell me what you think in a review, maybe vote on the poll that is on my profile, and check out my Pa tre on at /wingdknight if you want.**

 **G'night everyone,**

 **Wingd Knight out.**


	8. Chapter 7- First morning and first class

**This one took a bit longer than it should have to get out, but there is a reason for that. I wrote two chapters in this time frame. That's right, the next chapter of this story if already up on my P at reon at /wingdknight, go there and support me if you can please. Also if you guys could check out my other stories, tell me what you want me to continue or focus on (supporters get priority) I will be sure to do my best to make everyone happy. Oh and vote on the poll on my profile- seriously its been like a month and it has 11 votes.**

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Natsu woke up slowly with the sun the next day as he did every day, and like everyday he hated it. ' _It is too Mavis damned early to be awake. Why the hell do I do this to myself?'_ He bemoaned. It was a habit that he had had since his first childhood because it was when Igneel woke up and he had had trouble sleeping without his adoptive father's warmth to lean against. Back during his time in Fairy Tail he had used the early hour as a training period that he could keep constant both at his house or on a job. It wasn't until the Grimmlands that he grew to hate the habit because the Grimm there tended to be more active during the night causing him to get sporadic REM sleep at best, and now that he was at Beacon he hated it even more as it heralded the start of school.

School. The word still sent shivers of fear up his spine as he remembered being Erza's 'student'. The red haired warrior was a great wizard and warrior, and Natsu felt blessed to be able to call her a comrade and friend, and was lucky as all hell to be the first one to lay with her- one of only two men to ever have the pleasure- but he never wanted to be her student ever again. Be it for magic, swordplay, or academics the legendary Titania was ruthless in her teachings, and woah to those who failed her.

Natsu groaned sitting up in his new bed and looked at the provided alarm clock next to his bed. 06:00. God damn it. Slowly and grudgingly the Dragon Slayer stood up, looking around his dorm in a dazed state. The dorm was the same as every other in the school, made to comfortably- if snuggly- fit four students, complete with four desks, four beds, two large wardrobes, and a full size bathroom. For a one man unit like him it was a very spacious abode with way to much space for his limited belongings.

Deciding to make the best of his body clock waking him up Natsu decided to take a page from his old life's book and use the time he had before he had to actually do something and go and train. Changing out his flannel pajama pants for his normal/combat clothes and retide his ever present dragon scale scarf around his neck. He'd shower and put on the school uniform after his workout.

Finding a place to work out was a lot harder than one would think it was, especially seeing as they were at a combat academy, but the wizard was able to find one in the end near the cliffs where they had been launched for initiation. It was a decent distance from the school so there was no other early risers and he wasn't likely to cause any damage to something important or wake anyone else up at that unholy hour, plus it had plenty of space, a couple of trees, and if he ever wanted too he could jump off the cliff into the forest and find some grimm to kill. Perfect. Ish.

An hour and a half of Insanity later saw Natsu finishing up his daily workout complete with a scorched field and a half dozen craters. It felt pretty refreshing actually.

Returning to his dorm the Slayer was just in time to hear a loud whistle go off in his sisters' dorm accompanied by a crash and thump from a body falling to the floor. ' _Looks like Ruby is taking to her job as leader pretty well.'_ Natsu smiled. He remembered Erza and Mira doing similar things back during his time in Fairy Tail. ' _Wait, does that mean Ruby is a battle queen or a she-demon?'_ Natsu paused and shuddered, ' _Zeref I hope not.'_ Shaking the thought of his sister becoming like evil Mira or dictator Erza before he could really freak out and entered his dorm, and quickly showering and changing before leaving once again to grab something to eat before he was forced to attend classes.

Passing his sisters' dorm again he heard a lot of thumps, crashes, and tearing sounds. They must be decorating.

The cafeteria was pretty crowded when Natsu got there, which made sense seeing as there was about forty minutes before classes started, it was prime breakfast time. Looking around he saw team Douchebag, some other first year teams he hadn't bothered to learn the names of, a team consisting of an attractive brunette in a beret and sunglasses wearing a slightly modified school uniform to better accent her body- and wow did it work-, a _very_ large man with close cut hair and slanted eyes who was built like Laxus- that is, all muscle- an averaged hight dark skinned boy with deep red hair who may have been blind given his eyes- either that or his Aura flowed more freely through his eyes than normal giving the appearance of discoloration-, and a timid bunny Faunus that was a nice mixture between sexually attractive and cuddly beyond belief. She reminded him of Erza when she was tired, or Lisanna when she was in a good mood (of course when his first friend was is a _bad_ mood it was best to run for the hills, the Stratus sisters had more in common than hair color and magic type it turned out). Maybe he should go introduce himself. They seemed like cool people, and their Aura's showed they had power too. Plus, super cuddly bunny girl.

Before he had the chance however the bell signaling ten minutes before class rang out, causing those gathered to drop off their trays for the custodial staff and make their way to their first classes. He hadn't seen RWBY or JNPR come in at all, wonder why they decided to skip breakfast.

The first class he and the rest of the first years, was Professor Port's Grimm Studies class. It was supposed to be a class to help students better understand the weaknesses of the grimm that they would have to face in the future, but to Natsu it just seemed like a waste of time. With all the different fighting styles, Semblances, and levels of raw strength and power in the Huntsmen community it wasn't like everyone would fight the same grimm the same way. Knowing a King Taijitu was weak at its eyes was all well and good for people with spears or swords, but low impact guns, short blades, blunt weapons, or unarmed combat couldn't really put that information to the same use. It would be better to focus on pack types and how to expect them to work together. If a grimm species was known to fight like the raptors from ancient Earthland- _that_ would be useful to know.

RWBY and JNPR fell into the classroom with about four seconds to spare, looking as disheveled as possible while still being ready for class. ' _What the heck happened to them?'_ Natsu thought, ' _They don't seem the type to hate class that much… I think. Don't really know JNPR, Weiss, or Blake that well… or Yang and Ruby now that it hits me.'_ Natsu scowled when he realized this. Sure he spent a week with them a year, but he didn't know his sisters nearly as well as he should. Hell he had known Bisca and Alzack better and he spent more time with their kid than he did them after the seven years he lost on Tenrou. As a member of Fairy Tail he couldn't let this continue. Operation family time is going to be put into effect ASAP. He needed alcohol and a sparring ring for Yang- funny enough aura didn't do anything against getting drunk, or hangovers- and a bunch of strawberry pound cakes, cookies, and hot chocolate for Ruby. Yeah, a good few drunken punches to the face and a pair of sugar filled upset stomachs would work wonders.

As the last two teams took their seats Professor Port, a heavy set older man with a killer mustache began his class. "Monsters!" He started, "Deeeemons, prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of grimm have many names, but I simply refer to them as prey! Haha!" The man boasted, not noticing that most had already tuned him out. In fact if Natsu wasn't mistaken Ruby was almost asleep already.

' _... Who calles grimm demons?'_ Natsu thought, honestly surprised, ' _If people here think a beowulf or ursa is a demon they should have seen the ones from Tartors. THOSE things were demons.'_ Granted he did sleep with one of them, but that changed nothing.

Seeing the general lack of response to his boisterous claim the professor decided to continue his lecture, "uh, and you shall to when you graduate from this prestigious academy" he went on. "Now as I was saying. Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world. Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces." The man went on, "And that's where we come in. Huntsmen! Huntresses." Here he winked at Yang, earning a disgusted eye roll from the girl and a sudden rise in temperature courtesy of Natsu. He might not know his twin as well as he should, but he was still a Dragon and a Fairy Tail wizard to boot, and they tended to be a bit protective/ territorial.

Feeling the sudden heat and the killing intent coming off of Natsu, along with seeing the teen's glare, the teacher quickly moved on. "Individuals who have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves. From what you ask? Why, the very world!" He called out, earning a lone cheer from the back of the room, the source of which quickly grew embarrassed and shrunk back into their seat. "That is what you are training to become. But first, a story. A tale of a young handsome man… Me!"

At this point Natsu followed his younger sister and most of the class and zoned out. He was sure the man had a few good stories to tell people who only knew the inside of the kingdoms or other relatively safe places, but he was sure the things he had lived a life in a far more dangerous world as one of its strongest- if not the strongest- warriors, and had wandered the Grimmlands for five years without aid. His stories would no doubt trump the older man's easily.

The man droned on for a solid twenty minutes either uncaring or unaware that more and more of his students were falling asleep or just losing interest with every sentence. It wasn't until the end of his tangent that the Dragon Slayer began to pay attention again. "The moral of this story?" The professor told them, "A true huntsman must be honorable. A true huntsman must be dependable. A true huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise!" He told them seriously. Natsu could agree with that. Don't do things that a bad guy would do, get the job done in the best way possible, and don't do anything stupid while fighting… okay that last one he may need to work on, but the other two he had down pat.

"So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?" Port asked the class.

Natsu's hand was a split second faster than Weiss', "I do!" Natsu told him, "And I've proven it before." He told him.

The portly man raised a brow at the pink haired teen's words. "Have you now? What is your name trainee?"

"Brand Xiao Long." Natsu told him.

The man nodded, "Ah yes, if memory serves you have another name yes? The Fire Dragon. You have quite the reputation my boy! Come! Prove your metal!" The man commanded.

As her twin walked to take his spot at the front of the class at their professor's behest, Yang frowned. Professor Port reacted to Brand the same way Blake did, and this time without having to be told a different name to boot. They said he had a reputation, and both seemed to regard it in high regard. What Yang wanted to know is what kind of reputation had her brother gathered that she didn't know about? What had he done to earn not only her partner's awe, but the seeming respect of a Beacon Professor just by them hearing or at least knowing a title. Which brought up the question of how he had earned a title. She knew their Uncle Qrow was called the Drunken Reaper and the Scarecrow, but he had been an active huntsman for twenty years and had supposedly saved several settlements outside the protection of the kingdoms single handedly, doing the job of ten huntsmen by himself. Could Brand having titles like Salamander and Fire Dragon mean he did something similar. . ?

She hoped not. Not because she wanted settlements to be destroyed or anything, but because it would mean she really had been left in the dust of her younger twin. She already knew he was stronger than her, the repeated one hit knockouts she had suffered were proof of that, but she had always held on to the hope that she could beat him one day, or at least stand beside him as an equal, but if he was already in the same league as Uncle Qrow- one of Vale's best- she may very well be doomed to be in his shadow forever.

Had Natsu had his sensory nets up he would have felt a deep sense of depression and low confidence coming from his twin, but as it stood he merely removed his school jacket while Port dragged a large metal cage out to the center of the room, the noise and smell from inside indicating it was filled with a grimm.

Fun.

"Go Brand!" Ruby cheered her brother on.

"Fight well!" Blake called to him, waving a little flag with the Fairy Tail emblem on it. She must of thought it was his symbol seeing as he had tattooed it on his arm and left it burned on a stone of every village he was able to save. It was a symbol meant to represent light, goodness, and comradery after all. His actual symbol on the other hand, was the dragon tattoo he got when he bore the power of Igneel's last flames. It was a symbol that represented the late king's power after all, but a dragon didn't exactly bring to mind peace and safety. In battle it was awesome, in a more peaceful setting? Not the best choice. Still looked cool though.

Yang was silent, shoulders slumped.

"Alright!" Port said,lifting his musket axe high, "Let the match, begin!" He cut the chain keeping the box closed, releasing the beast within. A boartusk to be precise,

Natsu frowned, he thought he would have to fight something a little stronger, like a creep.

The pig like grimm pawed the ground, it's red eyes full of rage. Seeing the new student in front of it, the boartusk squealed and charged forward, intent on flattening the wizard. Natsu just sighed, squated a little, and stopped the grimm in its tracks by grabbing it by its horns. "Nice try." Natsu taunted, raising his left leg high and bringing it down in a brutal axe kick on the grimm's head, shattering its facemask and turning its skull to paste. An instant kill. He would have held back and practiced his hand to hand a bit, but the size and shape of a boartusk made them poor practice subjects for hand to hand specialists. Shield specialists probably could use them what with their tendency to charge forward using brute force and general lack of any other attack vector than head on, but other than that it was best just to kill the things… wow that sounded dark.

Port clapped loudly at the display, "Excellent Mr. Xiao Long, it seems your reputation was well earned after all!" He praised. "It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true huntsman in training!" He went on, "I'm afraid that is all we have time for today." He told them, "Class dismissed."

Natsu frowned, they had only been there for thirty minutes, weren't classes supposed to be an hour? Whatever. Must be a short class for the first day or something. He wondered what he had next?

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 **Like it? Hate it? Thought it was decent? Be sure to tell me all about it in a nice long REVIEW, your words of encouragement and your criticisms are more helpful than you know.**

 **This chapter was really just Natsu getting use to the school a bit, a look into Yang's head, and a little intro for Team CFVY. Not much in itself, but its important to build some world and all that right? Right.**

 **Again the next chapter is already up at P at reon wing dknight**

 **be sure to check it out!**

 **Happy Valentines day everybody (especially my fellow single people!)!**

 **Wingd Knight out.**


	9. Chapter 8- Warnings and Pep talks

**Okay this chapter is really just a reason to have Natsu talk to Weiss about her being... well early season 1 Weiss. Ozpin's understandable but unfounded distrust of Natsu also makes an appearance since I know you all wanted to see it. Plus I really like writing dialogue and such. Don't get me wrong I like action and all that too, but I it doesn't come as easily as stuff like this does to me. Also tension and drama, gotta love it.**

 **Anyway, read, favorite, REVIEW, and if you want to read the next chapter today, check me out at: P at reon.c o m (slash) wingdknight**

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Every class that day was as boring as Port's if you asked any of the Beacon students. Other than Port every professor decided to spend the first day discussing their class' syllabus and the expectations they had for their students. Just like every other school on almost every human inhabited dimension, not that Natsu would know that, never going to a real school before and all. Even on Patch he was homeschooled his entire time there, as was normal for the island, kids didn't really get a formal education till middle school where they either went to normal school or Signal combat school. Obviously he had left before that.

"-Not a team lead by you." Weiss' voice cut through the until then silent air, catching Natsu's attention. He had been coming this way to find his little sister who he had sensed was upset and was in the company of the Schnee heiress. Guess he should have figured it wasn't a coincidence.

He hadn't heard the full conversation as he had quickly learned to tune out things from his dragonic hearing after hearing some things between his twin and step-mother about the _joys_ of womanhood, but he knew that it obviously wasn't a happy one with the tone Weiss had used to dismiss his little sister on top of the feelings of anger and disgust from Weiss and the sadness and self loathing from Ruby.

It was against his nature to ignore this- no one bad mouthed his family- but the question remained of who he should confront. His sister who needed comfort and reassurance? Or Weiss who needed a reality check, a lesson in humility, and a warning?

His answer came in the form of him sensing the approach of Ozpin near his sister and Weiss unknowingly coming in his own direction. Guess he had to deal with the stuck up heiress and leave the motivational speeches to the headmaster. He could work with that.

Weiss stormed away from her so called 'leader' in disgust. The younger girl had spent the entire day from Port's class through the introduction of Peach's goofing off and acting like an immature _child_ that had no right to be at Beacon, let alone be a team leader. Whatever Ozpin was thinking when he gave the silver eyed little girl a position of authority was obviously full of flawed logic.

"Weiss." Someone called her, stopping the heiress in her tracks. She knew that voice. It was that pink dyed haired idiot of a brother of two of her teammates. She didn't care how strong the fool was- and he was strong, that much she could not deny- but he had no finesse, no control. He was a loose cannon who would only end up causing more harm than good when and if he ever graduated. She had seen the results of his training this morning, he caused more damage to the school grounds in a morning than the Grimm had in a decade.

"What do you want Xiao Long?" She growled at the other teen.

The boy frowned, "Well for one of your going to only call me by my last name you could use Dragneel. Yang is a Xiao Long too you know." He started.

Weiss snorted, a fake name for a fake huntsman.

"After that you can pull that self righteous stick out of your ass." He told her.

Weiss spluttered in indignation. How _dare_ this- this _dunce_ say that to her! "How dare you!?" She demanded. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

"The brother of the girl you just bitched out for something beyond her control. A girl who's also your boss now in case you forgot." He told her.

Weiss merely scoffed, "An immature little girl like her doesn't belong here." Weiss told him, "And she definitely doesn't deserve to be my leader."

"Why?" Dragneel asked her, "Yang and Blake are willing to follow her lead, what makes you think that you are so much better than them that you deserve better?"

Weiss growled in rage, "Are you kidding?" She demanded, "I don't know what Ozpin was thinking when he even let her _into_ this school! She is brash, childish, disrespectful, and has done _nothing_ to warrant her position!"

"And you have?" The red eyed boy asked, "I don't remember you doing anything to 'warrant' team leader either." Dragneel told her.

"I trained for this, I was prepared my whole life to be the best. I studied, I was tested, I had proved myself worthy of coming to this school and SHE didn't even take the entrance exam."

"You think being kept safe behind high walls and being given the best tutors money can buy makes you better than Ruby, who was able to get in two years early by impressing the headmaster himself with her skills, who grew up in a Vale settlement outside the walls and has been in live combat situations for the past two years with her only teachers being our drunken uncle who was gone more often than not and her own sweat?" Natsu asked her.

Weiss seemed taken back by that but was too stubborn to simply back down, "That doesn't change the fact that she doesn't have the mind of a leader, she is little better than a child."

"And you are a prideful, stubborn, self-righteous, bitch who is one of the most racist students in our year. I fail to see how that is any better." Natsu snarled.

"Just because I accept the fact that Faunus are just a bunch of criminals doesn't mean I would be a bad leader." Weiss tried to defend herself.

Dragneel's counter however was far more shocking than she had expected, "If you think Faunus are criminals just because of their race than you are a fool. How often have humans attacked, maimed, raped and killed not only Faunus but other humans as well? Get the stick out of your ass girl, the world isn't made of blacks and whites, there is more than enough red spilled in it everyday to blur those lines."

Weiss was shocked, no one ever spoke to her like that, she was the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company the wealthiest organization in all of Remnant, and it seemed he wasn't even done yet.

"Ruby was chosen not for her brain, but for her heart. She values life and will willingly put herself in harm's way to protect anyone in need, no matter who or what they are. If you truly believe that team RWBY would be greater under your leadership just remember this: A General is only as strong as his army. You seek greatness, to be the best, then go show that you are worthy of it. There is more to life than just being in charge Weiss, you can go prove your worth not by leading others but by following a just path. Or wallow in your petty hatred and let the darkness claim you." With his piece said, Brand turned and left the terrace, leaving Weiss to think over his words and make her choice.

Meanwhile Ruby was finishing her own conversation with Ozpin himself after questioning him on why he made her her team's leader. She had to admit, it really helped her feel better. She was still nervous, and had a good bit of self doubt about the whole thing, but she wasn't going to give up.

"Before you go Miss Rose." Ozpin stopped the girl before she could return to her dorm, "I was wondering if I could ask you something about your brother."

"What is it?" The silver eyed girl asked.

"I understand that he spent a great deal of time out in the Grimmlands over the last several years." The old wizard started, "I don't suppose you know anything about what he did during his travels?"

Ruby blinked at the strange question, "Uh, not really, he made sure not to get into a lot of detail about what he did with me and Yang. My dad or Uncle might know." She told him, "I do know that he went by Natsu Dragneel a lot though, even Blake knew it!"

Ozpin frowned at that, a pension to use false names then. "Do you know why by chance?"

The teen shook her head, "Not really, he said something about not liking his name, and that Natsu meant 'Summer'. Maybe he just wanted to honor my mom?" She reasoned.

Ozpin's frown deepened. While it was possible for Miss Rose to be right, and the younger Xiao Long twin decided to honor his step-mother by carrying her name in a sense, the teen's aparant common use of at least one false name, a name that held the name of a season worried him. What was worse was that he also knew the name Natsu Dragneel. A fire user and warrior beyond comprehension. He was credited with taking down entire herds of goliaths by himself with ease, with healing entire populations of sickness and wounds from past battles. Such an ability did not exactly aline with 'fire' and was a cause for suspicion with the Maidens being targeted.

"Thank you Miss Rose, for indulging this old man's curiosity." He nodded to the young teen, a polite dismissal that she saw for what it was and left.

Ozpin stood in the now abandoned hallway deep in thought. Miss Rose's ignorance to her brother's travels was expected, but the revelation that the pink haired teen was the famed 'Salamander' was not. The name carried a good deal of weight in certain regions of the Grimmlands, heralded as the savior of many, and the destroyer of hoards of Grimm and bandits alike. He was a killer, a powerful one, with a great deal of support from the settlements he passed through. In itself that wasn't a bad thing, Qrow, Port, and many other huntsmen and huntresses walked the same lines. They were the guardians of Remnant, and the need to spill the blood of the wicked was not an uncommon occurrence. The problem came in the inconsistencies that stemmed from the legend of the Fire Dragon.

There were accounts of him buring practical armies with a single attack, of him lifting pillars of stone many times his size, again not overly concerning in itself, but then came the tales of him calling forth light that cut through steel, of him calling forth the forms of beasts and gods to demonstrate his might, of him healing those on the brink of death with a single touch, of vanishing in bursts of flame only to appear hundreds of meters away in the midst of battle. This was concerning.

A huntsman could only have one Semblance, one power, yet the red eyed teen seemed to possess at the very least a half dozen Semblances which was beyond impossible. The only way for someone to have so many diverse powers was through the use of magic, and the only magic in all of Remnant belonged to himself, the Maidens, and the Relics. The Relics were safely hidden and secured behind powerful enchantments that only a certain Maiden could open for each Relic, and the Maidens could only be girls due to the inheritance ability he had imprinted on the power when he gave magic to the first Maidens.

Brand- or Natsu- was by no means a female, nor was he transgender or a hermaphrodite (he was required to check all applicants medical records to make sure there aren't any unexpected complications when they get injured), nor could he possess a Relic as they were all to large to hide on one's person and the boy's minimal clothing preference would make it impossible to conceal the artifacts.

Then there was his false name. Natsu, Summer. Ozpin had not heard from the Summer Maiden for quite some time, not since before Amber Autumn- the Fall Maiden- was attacked and her power partially siphoned off. Could it be that the Xiao Long brother was part of the same group that had attacked Amber, and had been a part of a task force that targeted the Summer Maiden and succeeded in stripping her of her powers with Brand being the new host, taking up the name of the season to signify his new position as the wielder of its power? It was unlikely, Qrow had told him how even the one who stole Amber's power was a woman herself so it may well be that whoever was hunting down the Maidens still needed a female host, but with so much on the line Ozpin couldn't afford to deny the possibility. Salem was stirring, the White Fang was becoming increasingly more violent, relations between the Kingdoms were at their most strained since the time of the Great War. Danger was on the horizon and Ozpin needed to be ready for it, even if it came in the form of one of his students and a family member of a good friend.

He had made more mistakes than any other sentient being in all of Remnant, he would not let this be another.

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 **Yes I know its shorter than what you all wanted, but I didn't know how to expand it past here (also heads up the next chapter is about the same length) but I hope you all still enjoyed it.**

 **Like I said, be sure to favorite, REVIEW, and you all know where you can read the next chapter today!**

 **Wingd Knight out.**


	10. Chapter 9- Fairy Dragon vs Beacon Witch

**Okay to be honest this should have been posted back on Monday but I forgot until Tuesday due to writing some other stuff at the time and at that point I figured I'd milk attention until today, sorry for being a dick like that. Also when I wrote this it was about the time I realized the hole I had written myself into (as a patron of mine also pointed out). I have stated straight up that Natsu is way stronger/ more powerful than any of the RWBYverse, so making a fight scene with him be interesting without the use of a seal or something like in Hellsing (great anime, great abridged series) I had to make Natsu willingly fight with a handycap or something to that effect. With that in mind, I wrote this. Hope I did okay. As always, read, enjoy, REVIEW, favorite, and check out my other works!**

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The fifth day at Beacon was when things really started to get moving in Natsu's opinion. They were getting lectures with substance from Port, history with actual repercussions in the modern day in Oobleck's class, and they had _finally_ started live combat in Goodwitch's.

Each student was randomly paired with another so Goodwitch could test their current level and more accurately pair them up in future spars. Natsu being the the lone man out with there being an odd number of students, he would be sparring with the professor herself after everyone else was done with their own test rounds.

Both his sisters had won their matches fairly easily, with Ruby blitzing around her much slower opponent's ax and Yang staying too close for the sniper she was paired with to ever get a shot in. Blake and Weiss- whom Natsu saw was getting along much better with his sister than at the start of the week- had also won their matches with the same level of ease, as had Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie, and Pyrrha Nikos. The only one from their recently formed group who had difficulty was Jaune, who was part of the last match before Natsu's own, and he was losing pretty badly.

He had been paired with the long sword wielding member of team Douchebag whose name Natsu had long since forgotten. Like Natsu had suspected back in the Emerald Forest, Jaune moved like a dancer not a fighter. This would have been fine if he used small weapons like knives or pistols or any kind of light armorment for that matter, but he used a hand-and-a-half sword, a fair sized kite shield, and even wore half coverage armor, in other words his movements couldn't flow. His dodges made him stumble due to the weight he threw around outside of his own limbs, he didn't brace himself properly when he blocked, his stance still being in a ready to move position, and he had little power behind any of his swings because he didn't properly utilize his back, waist, or legs, only his forearm.

His wrist work could also be improved, but given his weapon of choice that may be nitpicking, he wasn't too sure about that, he wasn't exactly a swordmaster, only being proficient...

Well, Gramps _had_ told him one of the best ways to improve a skill is to teach. Guess he knew what he would be doing after classes for a while.

A loud buzzer signaled the end of the match in Jaune's opponent's favor. Goodwitch silently made a mark on her clipboard as the two students made their way back to their seats, Jaune with his head bowed in disappointment and the other already laughing at the blonde knight with his team. "Alright class, we have one more match before the end of class. Mr. Xiao Long, please make your way to the ring." The older blonde called to her students.

Natsu stood from his seat at the back of the observation deck, his classmates already snickering about how he was going to get his butt kicked by the busty professor. The wizard scowled. He hated it when people thought he was weak.

Jumping over the observation deck ledge the reincarnated Slayer cracked his figures and entered the sparing circle with his 'teacher'. In his head he quickly went over what he knew about the blond's fighting style. She was what was called a 'caster' type, using ranged Dust attacks and her Semblance without the use of more close range or weapon based attacks. Getting in close would have to be his goal here. He could resist her telekinesis by coating himself in his magic so she didn't just pick him up and throw him around like a rag doll, and before she could switch to Dust attacks or throwing around something other than him he could close the gap between them and make it a hand to hand fight. Hopefully she had some skill in something other than ranged attacks, make things at least a little interesting. Now that he was in class he figured now was as good a time as any to start working on his own close quarters combat skills, he had become rusty over the years with so many easy fights, and he couldn't risk being at anything other than his absolute peek when he fought Acnologia.

"Now Mr. Xiao Long, this is purely to judge your current level of power and skill, I do not expect you to win, however I _do_ expect you to put forth your utmost effort." Goodwitch told him.

Natsu smirked, "I was about to say the same thing to you professor." He taunted.

Goodwitch scowled, "Your arrogance will get you killed." She warned him.

"My _confidence_ is well earned." He shot back, dashing slowly toward the older woman to prove his point.

Of course a slow dash to Natsu was still faster than most fighters could hope to track let alone defend against earning him a shocked look from the blonde witch as she swung her riding crop to channel her telekinesis Semblance only for her eyes to widen further still when it did nothing. Goodwitch wasn't an elite huntress for nothing however and she quickly got over her shock and jumped away from her charging student's punch.

' _It seems the stories of the Salamander have some substance after all.'_ She admitted to herself. To be able to completely resist the effects of her Semblance meant he had substantial control over his Aura shield, and his charging punch struck hard and fast, if she hadn't dodged she would have lost a decent chunk of her own Aura. The boy was strong, but he didn't show the godlike power his legend claimed he possessed.

' _She was able to dodge my punch. Good.'_ Natsu smirked, ' _I'm already limiting myself as much as I can without making it obvious, if she wasn't able to keep up now I would never get a good fight while I'm here.'_ He reasoned. "Now I got a fire in my belly!" He cried refusing to stop his advance. Each jab was skillfully dodged, each hook redirected with seeming ease, but Natsu could see the strain of her limbs as she pushed aside his fists, he saw just how narrow each dodge truly was. Goodwitch had skill there was no doubt of that, but it was clear that she had never pushed close quarters training the same way she pushed her Semblance and Dust spells. She couldn't keep this up, she would fall to him even at this level of strength if she did not make distance between them. If he let her fall back however she wouldn't make the mistake of trying to affect him directly again, she would send spears of stone and ice raining down upon him, spouts of flame and blasts of lightning would strike at him from all sides. Without using his magic he would fall in her steed, but if he did then he would have lost in his own way. This was supposed to be a way to bring his skill in combat back up to par, if he resorted to his fire he was admitting defeat. His pride as a Dragon Slayer would not allow this. He would defeat her with his flesh alone. He was the _Son_ of _Igneel_ , he was the _Fire Dragon Slayer,_ he refused to fall to any opponent no matter his handicap!

"You can do better than this Glynda!" Natsu yelled, "Give me a real challenge!" He demanded.

Goodwitch scowled at the use of her first name, "Very well." She told him, "Let us see how you fair." And just like that it was as if the blonde professor became a different creature all together. A flick of her wrist shattered the ground beneath him forcing him back and a second had rocks the size of his head hurled at him as if from a cannon. The flow of the battle was turned on its head, where before they were a single arm's length away from each other they now stood on opposing sides of the arena, where Goodwitch had before struggled to avoid the pinket's fists he now weaved through the her flying rocks with relative ease but lacked the opening to close the distance again.

' _Damn it I knew this would happen!'_ Natsu berated himself. He should have known that the witch would have a way to force him back other than throwing him away, now he was too far away to hit her without his magic and he already told himself that he wouldn't! ' _Think Dragneel, think! How can I get back in close?'_

The mage quickly took stock of the professor's attacks. She was only using blunt rocks to attack him, probably to save herself expenses on Dust and limit the amount of injuries he would take if he was hit. The problem came with how close the projectiles were to each other, he couldn't use them as springboards because if he did he would just end up jumping into another rock, he couldn't go under them or she would just shatter the ground again, and going to the sides would force him out of the rink. That left going straight up toward the ceiling where the barrage was thinner, if he could get up there fast enough he could hit her from above and end the fight that way. The trick was getting up there fast enough that she couldn't hit him midair.

' _Right, let's do this.'_ With his internal observations complete the dragon slayer lept straight off the ground, twisting his body like a gymnast to dodge the unrelenting barrage of stone that the blonde professor sent his way. A normal person could only jump less than two feet high, but a wizard in good shape- or a huntsman for that matter- could reach ten or even twenty feet with relative ease, and Natsu was among the most physically capable of any mage. The ceiling was twenty-five feet above the arena floor, ten feet above the observation deck, and Natsu's jump allowed him to not only reach it, but got him close enough that he was able to half flip his body to plant his feet on the roof's surface before launching himself back downward at an angle that set him once more on a collision course with Goodwitch. This time however he had both gravity working for him and had used slightly more strength in his take off sending him forward at speeds that Goodwitch could barely even see let alone react too.

His fist landing square in the middle of the blonde's face, breaking her glasses and sending her flying back and out of the ring winning him the match. The blow itself had only taken a third of the deputy headmistress' Aura so in a true fight they would have continued, but she had made it clear that all matches in her class were to follow tournament rules so despite not liking his fight being cut short, Natsu took the ring out for the victory it was.

The class was silent. Professor Goodwitch- Beacon's _combat instructor_ \- had just been bested. Goodwitch represented the power and skill they strived to achieve in their lives as huntsmen, and here was someone who was the same age as them beating her. Sure it looked like a pretty close match to most of them, but the fact that a fellow student- a fellow _freshman_ at that- was able to actually win a fight against a professor, a fully trained huntress renowned for her skill was insane.

Yang was affected the most by the seemingly impossible feat. This proved it, her brother had left her in his dust. He had just faced off against one of the best huntresses in the kingdom, maybe even the world, and had come out on top. How was she supposed to compare with that?

Slowly Goodwitch stood up from where she had fallen. The teenager's punch had packed quite… punch. She had underestimated him, she should have used her Dust spells. The thing that bothered her the most however, was the lack of the boy's use of his fire. The stories of his travels, his initiation, even Port's demonstration featured the young man's Semblance heavily in his fighting style, him failing to use it here meant he had been holding back, likely in response to her own refusal to use her full capabilities. Which brought up the question, if he was this strong without even using the barest hints of his fire, how powerful was he when he went all out?

She would have to bring this to Ozpin, with Salem on the move again they may need the boy's power. That is, if he wasn't already under the Witch's thumb she thought with a glare at the mage.

Natsu just looked back at his teacher quickly, "So… can we go to lunch now?"

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 **The next chapter is of course already up on Pa tre on.**

 **In this chapter we see Natsu fight smart instead of strong to make things- hopefully- a little bit more interesting than a 'MATCH START- BOOM!' fight, be sure to tell me how I did.**

 **Next chapter is a chat between Natsu and Jaune, along with a bit of alluding to Natsu's time in Fairy Tail and the first time Natsu notices that Yang might have a small issue with him.**

 **Don't expect an update next week though. I want the P at re on version to always be at least one chapter ahead and recently I started two new stories (yes I know I have a problem, its a mix of my ADD and impulse writing), a Danny Phantom crossover with High School DxD (which will be violent and brutal and will contain bashing) that seems to have gotten a decent response and a Spider-Man Homecoming crossover with Black Panther (which will have very little action for the first arc or two if it goes according to my original plan) that really BLEW UP. I mean really, it skyrocketed! I have to work on a second chapter for at least that one if not both so it may take a while to get back to my bread and butter here. Sorry.**

 **Remember that I have a P at re on if you feel like you want to support my writing efforts! And/Or check out my other works and drop a REVIEW if you can!**

 **Thank you all for you reading!**

 **Wingd Knight out**


	11. Chapter 10- The Knight and the Dragon

**Okay I wrote this after reading and watching a lot of war books and flicks, and after getting into a couple arguments with anti-police and military assholes and snowflakes so I may have hammered a few things that would have been better done in passing, sorry about that. I'm also sorry about the time it took to get this out, I wanted to get a chapter of one of my other stories done, but writers block for both those ones and this one made that hard, but after getting over it- partially- I got the next chapter for this done and posted on P at re on if you want to read it now. Anyway, please read, review, maybe favorite and check out my other stories. Maybe buy me a coffee at Ko-fi /sevenknights.**

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"That. Was. Awesome!" Ruby cheered as their group left Goodwitch's class, "you were all like _whoosh_ and then she was all _back up_ and you were like _meteor punch!_ " She babbled.

Natsu laughed at the childish description of his fight with Glynda, "Nah, if you wanted to see a _real_ meteor punch you'll have to wait until I do that with my Semblance!" He boasted.

"It is very impressive." Ren admitted, "To be able to defeat a Beacon professor in single combat even if you were both holding back."

"You noticed she was holding back too huh?"

"Professor Goodwitch is known for her mastery of Dust spells just as much as she is known for her telekinesis, the complete lack of their use was obvious." Ren told him.

Jaune looked at the two incredulously, "You two completely destroyed the sparring ring in less than two minutes and your saying that was you guys taking it easy!?"

Natsu nodded, "Pretty much. Glynda probably just wanted to see my skill level and I wanted to practice my hand to hand."

Weiss looked at the fire user with a deadpan stare, "You thought the best time to practice with a handicap was during a fight with one of the best huntresses out there?"

"That's what makes it interesting." Natsu defended himself.

"I heard rumors of your battlelust Natsu, guess they had some truth in them after all." Blake spoke up.

"Who's Natsu?" Nora asked the raven haired girl.

"It's the name I went by when I was traveling the Grimmlands." Natsu told her instead, "Natsu Dragneel."

"Why bother with a fake name?" Yang grumbled, "Are you embarrassed to be a lumped in with us?"

The dragon slayer looked at his twin in shock at her bitter tone, "What? No. I just didn't want you to be targeted by the bandits who I fought. I started when we were twelve Yang, and until we were Ruby's age you wouldn't have been able to beat them all if they came after you, and by the time that happened the name had personal value and a reputation that helped out a lot while I traveled." Natsu told her. Yang just huffed at her twin's reply.

"Right… hey let's go get some victory pancakes to celebrate all of us being so awesome!" Nora shouted to break the new tense atmosphere, unknowingly making a new one when Jaune flinched slightly remembering that he was the only one of the nine of them who didn't win their match.

Having noticed the blonde's flinch Natsu gripped his shoulder in support, slowing him down a bit so that the two of them were behind the rest of their group, "Hey don't worry about your match Jaune, losing happens and all you can do is work to make yourself better. Besides for a dancer playing knight you did pretty damn good!" Natsu assured him.

Jaune's head snapped to look at his fellow teen in shock and fear, "Y-you know?"

"That you don't have combat training? Or at least not with a sword and shield? Yeah. The way you move, it's like an old allie of mine named Vijeeter, he was a hand to hand combatant that based his fighting style off of dance moves. To be honest he was always more of a dancer than a fighter. Anyway, after knowing him for a few years along with some master swordsmen and women on top of my own mediocre skill with a sword, it was pretty obvious which one you resembled more when you moved." Natsu explained.

Jaune looked down in shame. "You're going to tell the professor's aren't you?"

"No."

"What?" Jaune asked shocked.

"You don't move like a fighter, but you do have control over your movements, and you are willing to put your life on the line for others. As far as I'm concerned that means you deserve a chance." Natsu told him. "Tell you what, I have some skill with a sword, not shields but swords, so how about I help you out? It'll be good for both of us. You will learn to use a sword at least moderately well and I can work on what I know! Win win right?"

Jaune squinted at the red eyed teen but nodded his head in acceptance despite his obvious wariness, "Why do you even know how to use a sword anyways? You punch and kick things with fire." Jaune asked.

"True, but a close friend of mine was a sword mistress and an old rivel learned some of the basics to help with his Semblance so I decided to ask said sword mistress friend of mine to teach me some things. Couldn't let that freaking ice cream cone have something to one up me with you know?"

"Er, no not really. Never had a rival… or a lot of friends, just my seven sisters." The blonde confessed.

Natsu's eyes bugged out at the number, " _Seven_ sisters?! Damn either your parents really kept busy or they _really_ wanted a boy."

"I'm the fourth eldest along with my twin. Three older sisters, three younger." Jaune told him.

"... Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"Dude how did you survive? Being both the middle child _and_ the lone boy in the group must have sucked."

"It wasn't that bad. Worst they did was make me dress up, learn to do hair and makeup, and have me learn to dance, cook, and sew."

"Did the dressing up include dresses and the makeup include going out in drag?"

"... Maybe."

"If Yang finds out your entire school life will be nothing but teasing and embarrassment."

"I know."

"Do your sisters have pictures?"

"Dozens."

"You are screwed dude."

"I know." Jaune hung his head.

"So you want me to train you?"

"Yes please."

"Awesome. We start tonight, meet me by the cliffs. Now let's go get something to eat."

By this point the two had fallen so far behind the rest of the first year class that by the time they arrived at the cafeteria they were the only ones who had yet to find a seat. Luckily their teammates and family members saved them spots with them. "What took you guys so long?" Ruby asked the two.

"Nothing, I just wanted to offer Jaune some lessons to help adjust to his new weapon." Natsu told his sister, "turns out that he used daggers before coming to Beacon but his dad insisted he take Crocea Mors when he found out."

"I understand." Pyrrha nodded her head, "I have met many people who have wanted their weapons to be carried by the younger generation. To keep alive their legacy or for sentimental value."

Ren hummed in agreement, "I myself carry my father's dagger, it's actually why I use bladed pistols. I wanted to be able to use it effectively."

"Still," Weiss cut in, "To have you change your weapon now? With no training? And to agree with it? Foolish."

Jaune hung his head and decided to just follow Natsu's lead, "W-well my knives weren't in the best condition and I knew Crocea Mors was a good sword- my great great grandfather used it in the War after all- so I figured it was as good a time as any you know?"

"It is a good sword." Ruby nodded her head.

"Just hope you learn to use it fast. Beacon is said to have a lot of active combat lessons." Blake warned him.

The blonde gave the raven haired girl a blank look, "I hadn't noticed." The others chuckled at that. The Initiation at the beginning of the semester had already clued them into the school's view of field exercises.

"I didn't know you could use a sword Brand." Yang accused her twin, everyone ignoring the minor argument she and her brother had earlier.

Natsu shrugged slightly, "I'm not a master or anything, but one of my friends, Erza Scarlet, taught me a few things."

"Maybe I could help you as well Jaune." Pyrrha offered, "I'm fully trained in swordsmanship and how to use a shield. Not the same kinds as yours but it's better than nothing."

Jaune smiled at his partner, "Thank's Pyrrha any help at all would be great."

Natsu clapped Jaune on the shoulder looking the redhead in the eye, "Not so fast Pyr, I got him first. After I whip him into shape I'll send him your way, till then he's mine to tortu- train. Mine to train."

"Should I be concerned?" Jaune asked Ren.

"Most definitely." Ren told his leader, "Be sure to drink plenty of water and stretch first, trust me you'll regret it if you don't."

"I'm starting to regret this."

"And you will continue to regret it until you are in a fight and realize how effective the training is. If you don't regret it before then he's doing it wrong." Pyrrha told him.

Jaune whimpered but Natsu was quick to reassure him, "Don't be like that Jaune, we'll start easy okay? Lesson one will be the most basic and important of all the lessons out there!"

"Honor and Respect? How to hold my sword? Speech giving?" The blonde knight asked.

"HA! That's funny! No, how to dodge!" The slayer told him, "Honor and Respect is lesson three, holding your sword is four, and speeches… well you learn that in the moment."

"Wait so what's lesson two?"

"How to bloke and/or take a hit. So both your first lessons will consist of me throwing rocks and punches at you until you have them down."

"... The first lessons are me getting beat up?" Jaune asked in horror.

"Yep!" Nora broke in, "Best way to learn! Have it pounded into you!" She said jovelly.

"Of course it is." Jaune said defeated, "Wait, why is Honor and Respect lesson three?"

"You can't show Honor or Respect if you are dead." Ren told him, "You have to learn to stay alive first, but you have to learn them before you learn to fight or else arrogance can more easily take your heart." He said wisely, "Remember, there is no honor in a warrior's death, only in how they die." He said seriously, "We all die, be it by sickness, old age, poison, or battle against man or grimm. We _will_ die, there is nothing we can do about that. What we _can_ do is dictate _how_ we die. We all want it to be in peace after a full life, but we are Huntsmen, we do not often get that luxury, we give it to those we protect, but to do that we need to first live."

The table went quite at the martial artist's words. It was a bitter fact, but true nonetheless. Out of a hundred huntsmen only four typically got the pleasure of living till old age. They were reminded of it constantly, from their teachers, from textbooks, from dates on gravestones, from their parents- those who had any still alive at least-, everywhere. A short life in exchange for an exciting one. A hard life for a remarkable one. A painful life for a legendary one. Such was the way of the world.

"Way to bring everyone down dude." Natsu said, shattering the silence, "Buck up. Like Master Makarov always told me, 'live well, shine bright, love, laugh, and do what feels right, and when the time comes for you to rest, rest well and carry one through one life to the next'."

Blake looked at the pinket with wide eyes, "That's… poetic." She told him, "He sounds like a good leader."

Natsu nodded, "He was." The fire user agreed.

Tired of the somber mood Nora decided to brighten it up a bit in her own special way, "Did he make good pancakes?"

Natsu laughed at the seemingly random question, "Not a clue, never saw the man do anything with food than pour his beer!" He chuckled.

The group of friends laughed at that. "Sounds like Uncle Qrow." Ruby giggled.

"Nah, if anyone in Fairy Tail was like Qrow it was Gildarts." Natsu told her.

"Fairy Tail? Is that the name of the group Makarov lead?" Weiss asked.

"Yeah," Natsu confirmed, pulling up his sleeve to show his tattoo, "This is the emblem of Fairy Tail." He told her, "It was the symbol of its founder Mavis Vermillion, she was seen as a bringer of light and peace during her life, now its used to represent the ideals she upheld. Adventure, peace, and family, all those who took this mark swear to seek these things. I've never regretted taking it, and I never will." He said with pride.

Ruby's eyes shined at her brother's words, "So cool!"

"You are not getting a tattoo Ruby." Yang told her.

"But Yang!" Ruby whined, earning a new round of laughs from the two teams as the two sisters began to playfully argue over the fifteen year old wanting a tattoo until the bell rang at the end of lunch.

Jaune smile was the brightest as they all left their table. Not only had he gotten a teacher to help him, one who knew but did not care about his lying to get into Beacon, but a group of true friends. It was a good day.

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 **Any good? I don't think its my best work, but let me know what you all think. Leave a review- its my lifeblood here- check out the P at re on and ko-fi if you want to support me and give me more time and motivation to work on this stuff. If not, be patient and don't complain... wow coming from me that sounds so hypocritical. Anyway, here you go, hope you liked it, and please LEAVE A REVIEW! And I'm out.**


	12. Chapter 11- Training and Introductions

**Yes I know I missed an update day, but I _did_ post a second chapter for 'A Spider in Wakanda' before this so at least I'm still producing stuff. I don't remember what I was doing or what was going on when I wrote this chapter but as always it probably effected something in it somewhere so whatever. This is mostly a filler type thing but those of you who can read between the lines may catch sight of some of the future plot ideas I might use. Anyway if you like it: REVIEW, Favorite, check out my profile poll on cartoons that no longer air but are still awesome, read my other stories if you know the fandoms they are for, and maybe support me via P at re on.c o m (slash) wingdknight or by going to ko-fi.c o m (slash) sevenknights either one would would be much appreciated. Now, on to the story!**

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"Ahh! Save me!" Jaune cried, running away from his new trainer.

"Damn it Jaune what did I tell you?! Don't step back! Side to side and forward movement only!" Natsu yelled at the blonde knight, throwing another head sized rock at him.

"Ahh-ah-ah-ah!" The blonde continued to cry.

' _Oh for the love of.'_ "Okay, let's take a break." the slayer sighed.

"R-right. Sorry Brand." Jaune panted, ashamed of his poor performance.

"Don't feel too bad Jaune." The fire user told him, "You have physical stamina if nothing else. Your reflexes were a bit slow, and the times I hit you showed your Aura control is pretty shabby- you lost more Aura then you wrapped around yourself-, you don't trip over your feet which is good, but your speed is as slow as your reflexes. We got a lot of work to do." He told the other teen.

Jaune looked down in shame, "Do you think there's any hope or me?" He asked.

Natsu smiled at the blonde, "I wouldn't be here if I didn't." He assured him.

Jaune looked up hopefully at his trainer's words. He admitted sneaking into Beacon may not have been the smartest thing he ever did, but to hear that he could very well become a real huntsman by who he was sure was the strongest member of his entire generation showed him it was a good choice.

"Enough rest, let's get back to work."

If he didn't die before graduation that is.

"Jaune! What happened?!" Pyrrha asked her leader in shock seeing the blonde covered in bruises when the two joined the rest of their group for dinner.

"I didn't dodge." Jaune told her with a near unintelligible slur. He may have a concussion.

"What did Brand throw at you? Rocks?" The redhead asked.

"Yep!" Natsu cheered, cutting into the conversation, "It's like kid playing with fire, it's easier for them to be burned once then to give them a bunch of lectures not to touch it."

"Hearing that from you doesn't really hold a lot of weight." Blake told the pink haired teen referring to his fire based powers.

Natsu crossed his arms in defiance of the Faunus' words "Sure they do, I'm just not the one burned in this case. Instead of _me_ doing something dumb and getting hurt, I show people what _they_ are doing is dumb." He defended himself.

"Please tell me that doesn't mean your going to start throwing fireballs at Jaune?" Pyrrha asked concerned.

"I wasn't planning on it, but that sounds like a great idea!" Natsu said happily. "Thanks Pyrrha!"

Jaune, his concussion starting to clear thanks to his Aura, glared at his partner, "Yeah, thanks Pyrrha." He grumbled earning a a sheepish look from the champion fighter.

"Enough about training." Ruby spoke up, "We've been at school almost a full week now and we never really introduced ourselves! As new friends this must be fixed!" The chibi reaper declared.

"How foolish." Weiss scolded her leader, "We all already know eachothers names, there is no need for introductions."

"Not those introductions." Ruby explained, "I mean like our favorite foods and why we became huntresses and huntsmen! Our Semblances and weapons!" She said enthusiastically.

"I get the feeling this is just an excuse to see our weapons." Ren accused the short girl.

"You have no proof!"

"It's not a bad idea." Blake spoke up, "We will no doubt be working together a lot in the future, so knowing what the rest are capable of would be useful."

Ruby nodded at the raven haired girl's words, "Exactly! That's what I meant!"

Natsu just rolled his eyes at his little sister, "Whatever you say Ruby. But I see your point, I'll start. My favorite food is anything meat, I became a huntsman so I could help people and travel the world without restrictions, my Semblance is called 'The Flames of Emotion' which of course means I can produce fire from my body and either power or alter its properties using my emotions." That part was a bit of a stretch. He didn't actually know if he had a Semblance seeing as he came from a different universe and was always capable of magic in this one, and while he did know the technique 'Flames of Emotion' it was only a power based thing and didn't change the properties of the fire produced, that was done with willpower or the use of other spells than his Slayer magic, "and while I can use a sword at least moderately well I'm mostly a hand-to-hand fighter and don't use weapons." He finished off.

Next was Nora, "Oh, I _love_ pancakes, I became a huntress because…" the usually bubly girl trailed off here, obviously recalling a painful memory. Ren put a comforting hand of his closest friend's shoulder not saying a word, only letting the orange haired girl know that he was with her. Nora gave the boy a smile in thanks, "A-anyway my Semblance doesn't have a name but it lets me take in electricity and convert it into physical strength, but I can't supercharge my attacks with it and it doesn't recharge my Aura." She explained obviously disappointed that she couldn't blow things up with a punch or fight forever with enough of a charge, "and my weapon is called Magnhild, the most awesome giant hammer you will ever see! It hits like a truck and can hold six grenades a clip to shoot at my enemies!" She said happily. The others at the table rolled their eyes at the girl's boasting and obvious love for mayhem and battle. Not that most of them could blame her, blowing stuff up was fun.

Taking over where his friend left off Ren spoke next, "I do not have a favorite food per say, though I enjoy pork dumplings. I became a huntsman for two reasons, one is the same as Nora, the other is to live up to what my father always believed I could become." He said resolutely, a fire in his normally calm eyes that showed he was just as capable of rage as anyone else despite his usual monk like nature. "My Semblance is… unique I suppose, it creates a 'dead field' of emotion rendering those in it invisible to Grimm and allows them to more easily control their emotions besides." Natsu raised an eyebrow at that. A person's Semblance was closely tied to their personality at its most basic and pure, a characteristic of themselves that was a part of them their whole lives and is unlikely to ever change or leave them. Nora's showed she would take outer power and make it her own, perhaps a reference to her being relient of Ren to such a degree. Yang's showed that she would take any hardship thrown at her and come back stronger. Ruby's that she would always move forward and would be the first into battle. For Ren's Semblance to kill emotion and hide himself and others from Grimm… either the teen was far different than he seemed, or he experienced a major trauma when he was younger that shaped him more than anything else likely ever would. "My weapons are called Storm Flower, duel bladed-uzis that use light rounds that are best for large groups of weak enemies or hitting fast opponents, for stronger ones I use the blades attached to them or use a special Aura powered palm strike that causes large amounts of internal damage and even forces the body to warp or even explode." He finished.

Either not seeing or ignoring the implications of the long haired boy's Semblance and truly terrifying Aura technique Pyrrha went next, "My favorite food is chocolate and I became a huntress because my mother is one and I always looked up to her," The redhead began, "My Semblance is a secret, sorry" She apologized when the others looked like they were going to protest, "but it works best when people don't know what it is, I promise I'll tell you all someday, just not now." She told them, looking around the cafeteria at the many other students around them, more than a few looking in their direction with various degrees of subilty. "I use a traditional Minstralian round shield and a sword spear rifle pair I call Akouo and Milo, listen and speak in the old language of Minstrel." She explained.

Seeing as he was the last one of his team Jaune decided to go next, "Er I guess my favorite food would be either Beef bourguignon or chocolate souffle. I became a huntsman because my whole family before me were heros and I wanted to live up to the legacy. I don't know my Semblance yet but I am working on it. My weapon is my family's ancestral sword Crocea Mors- which means something like 'yellow death' I think- and the shield my great grandfather used in the Great War, it doesn't have its own name like the sword but it is one of the first ever uses of mechashift gear ever made… at least as far as I can tell." He admitted before remembering the cover story Brand had given him a few days before, "I used to have a pair of knives before coming here, but they were in pretty bad shape and I wasn't all that great with them anyway, so I changed them out for my sword."

Blake took it upon herself to go next, "My favorite food is fish- tuna to be precise" Here Natsu chuckled earning himself a glare from the cat girl, "I became a huntress because… I had the skills, and I figured it was best to use them for a good purpose." Both Natsu and Ren's eyes narrowed at that. People didn't simply just _have_ the skills of a huntsman or huntress, they either had to be taught them- usually for a specific purpose-, or they were put into a situation where they learned them or died. From what Blake said it sounded like she had the skills she now possessed before she decided to become a huntress, so why did she learn to fight in the first place? Both boys saw that the other noticed the same thing they did, but the rest seemed oblivious to the hidden question that was brought up by Blake's words. "My Semblance allows me to replace myself with an incorporeal clone which propels me out of whatever spot I was in when I activated it, having my 'shadow' take a hit for me and giving me an opening to attack." Natsu and Ren's frowns deepened, that was as close to an assassin's Semblance as one could get without it being straight up invisibility or mind control. Things were starting to paint Blake's past in a very dark picture. "My weapon is called Gambol Shroud, it's a cleaver sheath and a kusarigama pistol katana on a special ribbon that gives me better range and mobility with my kusarigama." She finished.

Yang, boisterous as she was, went next, "My favorite food is a good cheeseburger! I became a huntress in honor of my step-mother, to find my blood mother, for the adrenaline, and to protect Ruby here!" She said, giving her little sister a playful noogie, "My Semblance lets me store the power behind blunt force attacks used against me to use as a power boost for my own punches, though like Nora it doesn't restore stamina or Aura." She told them, getting a little blush from Blake, the blonde got stronger through getting hit, sounds like something from one of her… _special_ books. "My weapon is a pair of shotgun gauntlets called Ember Celica, they hit like a mule and look more stylish than any bracelet you'll ever see!" She boasted.

Out of patience Ruby took her turn, "My favorite food is definitely chocolate chip cookies- the greatest snack ever!- with strawberries being a close second. I became a huntress to help people and make sure as many people get a fairy tale ending as possible. My Semblance is superspeed based though it also creates temporary rose petals out of my Aura when I use it, not sure why but it looks awesome so I don't care. And my baby is called Crescent Rose, a high impact sniper scythe of pure awesomeness that I designed and built myself!" She bragged, obviously more proud of her weapon than the others.

With a role of her eyes the Schnee heiress was the last of the group to speak, "My favorite food is cake, any and all kinds really. I became a huntress to get away from my father, make my grandfather proud, and to follow in my sister's footsteps in a way." She told them, getting wide eyes from Blake at her obvious dislike of her father, "My Semblance is hereditary unlike most, though I never found out why, it allows me to create glyphs that each have different effects from propeling me across distances, solid platforms in midair, time dilation, and more." She informed them, "My weapon is Myrtenaster, a multi Dust action rapier I had custom made out of special steel that can chanel and withstand the power of Dust better than any other kind." She said smugly.

Ignoring the rich girl gloat at the end of the albino girl's introduction, Natsu clapped his hands together with a smile, "Well that was fun! We learned about Ruby's cookie addiction, that Pyrrha isn't an unbeatable juggernaut with no weaknesses, and that Weiss has daddy issues. I think we all feel closer than ever don't we?" He asked getting small smiles and nodes from the others, "Good idea Ruby." The dragon slayer complimented his sister, "Now come on Jaune, we aren't finished today's training yet!" He told the blonde knight, grabbing him by the shoulder and dragging him away.

"Wha-?! Wait! Have mercy!" He cried.

"No such thing! If your not hurting, your not learning! Now let's go!" the rest of team JNPR just laughed at their leader's misfortune. They all had to go through it at some point, though they had to admit when it was someone else it was _much_ funnier.

"Traitors!" Jaune yelled as Natsu dragged him away. This was going to suck.

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 **Good? Bad? Terrible? Fantastic? Let me know in the comments below!**

 **Again sorry those of you who wanted this last week, but I'm trying to diversafy and make sure any writers block or loss of interest doesn't make me quite a story so I'm working on a few others bit by bit and may make some others as inspiration hits. Yes I know that sucks and I hate writers who do the same thing because I tend to like one or two of their stories but they don't update them for months and instead update ones I don't care about or make new ones that I hate but now I'm doing the same thing and I hate myself for it. I blame my ADD but I know deep down its because I have a weak will and can't help myself. Still as long as this story remains my #1 most followed, favorited, reviewed, and supported story I will do my best to update at LEAST twice a month... you know if I can.**

 **Anyway hope you all liked it!**

 **Wingd Knight out!**

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P at re on.c o m (slash) wingdknight

ko-fi.c o m (slash) sevenknights


	13. Chapter 12- Pep Talks and Confrontations

**Hello All! Happy Easter to all of you who celebrate it and for those who don't Happy April Fools Day! I once again do not remember what was going on in my life when I wrote this one, but it influenced something in it somewhere. Doesn't really matter as long as the story is good though right? Now heads up this chapter has a shift in it that I usually do between chapters, but I didn't this time. Also there is a scene in this one that is VERY similar to the original because- surprise- there are aspects of my original work that I liked. I hope you all enjoy this and if you could, follow favorite and REVIEW! Maybe spread the word of the story or me as an author? You know those of you who run communities on this site. It helps more than you know.**

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' _He's gotten better.'_ Natsu observed Jaune's fight with Cardin Winchester several weeks into their training. His thrusts were still a bit slow, and his shield work wasn't too good either, but all in all he had improved a great deal. He wasn't quite Beacon level yet, but by the end of the year he should be on the same level as most of their year. Jaune was basically prodigy, if his parents had given him the training other members of the Arc clan had gotten, or even sent him to a combat school he would be Pyrrha's equal by now, or at least damn near close to it.

The match ended in Cardin's favor unfortunately, but Jaune had been able to chip a good eighth of the larger teen's Aura away over the course of the spar. It may not have been the biggest achievement since Cardin was about as average a combatant for their year group as could be without being below the norm, but it was much better than he would have been able to do at the beginning of the year.

"That's enough." Ms. Goodwitch stepped in when Cardin looked like he would continue the fight after the end bell rang. Walking between the two students who occupied her arena she gave each of the boys a quick glance before addressing her class as a whole. "Students as you can see Mr. Arc's Aura has now dropped into the red. In a tournament style duel this would mean that Jaune is no longer fit for battle and the oficial may call the match." She explained before continuing at the same volume, "Mr. Arc it's been weeks now, and while you may have improved please refer to your scroll during combat. Gauging your Aura will help you decide when it is appropiat to attack and when it is better to move on to a more, defensive strategy." She told him exasperatedly.

Natsu's eyes widened at the blonde professor's words. 'Refer to your scroll'? Was she serious? In the middle of combat? That had to be the stupidest thing he had ever heard. To willingly take your eyes off of your opponent while in the midst of battle just so you can check your reserves? All that would do would be to either lower your moral and cause panic if your Aura was low or potentially make you feel cocky if it wasn't. Either way it would be giving the one you are fighting an opening while your attention was elsewhere, which any fighter could tell you was not a good thing. Either Goodwitch had never been in close quarters combat in her life on top of never being truly overwhelmed at long range, or she was a complete fool.

Given her reputation and Natsu's own experience with her, he was going with the former.

"We wouldn't want you getting gobbled up by a beowolf, would we?" She asked condescendingly. Bitch move. Beowolves were among the weakest of the Grimm hierarchy, to suggest that one could just walk up and eat a huntsman in training was effectively calling them fodder.

"Speak for yourself." Cardin muttered nearly causing Natsu to snarl at the ginger haired jerk. The guy had been nothing but an ass since the start of the school year. He was a racist, sexist, jackass who got pleasure out of picking on anyone he could. His favorite target was Jaune and even though his team, team RWBY and Natsu himself tried to stop Cardin from bullying him they couldn't be next to their blonde friend all the time. If Natsu thought he could get away with it he would set the ass on fire.

Goodwitch either didn't hear the uncouth comment of her student or chose to ignore it in favor of speaking to her class as a whole once more, "Remember everyone, the Vital festival is only a few months away!" She reminded them, starting excited murmurings and giddy little dances among the whole class, "It won't be long before students from the other academies start arriving in Vale so keep practicing." She told them. "Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale." She finished as the bell rang signaling the end of class and the start of lunch period.

As the rest of their classmates filed out of the room Natsu and Jaune took a second to look at Jaune, only to see him hold his head in his hands positively oozing sorrow and self doubt. Pyrrha, not knowing what to do, bit her lip and followed the rest of her team to the lunch room, vowing to talk to him during the open period in a less somber setting.

Natsu on the other hand, had a different idea on how to handle the presented situation and waited until he and the blonde where the only ones left in the combat room. When the last of their classmates let the door close behind them Natsu approached the moping knight as he heaved himself off the floor.

"Jaune." The wizard blunty said to gain the scoin of the Arc clan's attention.

"Brand?" He asked confused and more than a little weary, "Look if you want to talk about how much I suck save your breath, trust me I already know." He said miserably.

Natsu scowled at the other teen's defeated tone. "Jaune, do you know what you just did?"

The blonde looked up confused, obviously he did not know what the pinket was talking about. "You just fought on par with a sophomore from a lower combat school." Natsu told him, "You fought with the skill and strength of someone who trained for at least a year and a half. The level it took Cardin eighteen months to achieve you met in barely one." He revealed.

"Wha- Really?" Jaune asked shocked.

Natsu nodded, "Don't get to big a head though, you have the advantage of a more developed body, allowing your strikes to be harder and faster more naturally than someone of the actual age. Still, your skill level does not have that excuse, that is all you." The other teen told his pseudo student.

Jaune smiled at his tutor's words clearly happy to know that he was advancing so quickly. That is, until a different thought popped into his head. "Out of curiosity…" the blonde began, "how long did it take you to reach this level?" He asked, "The one I'm at now."

"About three weeks. When I was ten." Natsu admitted. This was true to a degree, when he was physically ten years old in this dimension it took him roughly three weeks after opening his Aura to reach the level of combat ability Jaune had exhibited in his match, and a total of two years to make it to the point where he could face the average fully trained and certified huntsman one on one, with another six months after that to reach his uncle's level, and a year of wondering the Grimmlands to make it back to his old strength, making him physically thirteen and a half when he actually started building on the power he left off at in his first life.

Jaune once again looked at his feet in depression, "Oh."

Natsu rolled his eyes, "Why are you so upset about that? I'm the strongest of our generation- possibly of all history- being second to me isn't anything to be upset about." He told him, "You don't have to be the best you just have to strive to be the best. There is always someone better than you, there is no shame in that, there is only shame in not trying to overtake them. Move forward, don't just be content with where you are, improve all your strengths, minimize your weaknesses, be the best you can. Don't judge yourself based on others Jaune, judge yourself on who you were yesterday and who you can be tomorrow." The Dragon Slayer told the knight, clasping the other boy's shoulder in a show of support.

Jaune looked up at his classmate, a small smile on his face but clearly not fully taking Natsu's words to heart, "Thanks Brand." He whispered, "But coming from someone like you- strong, well liked, successful- it's hard to embrace something like that." He admitted.

Natsu's arm fell off of the teen's shoulder as Jaune walked past him toward the classroom door head still bowed in defeat. The reincarnated mage watched the other boy walk away in silence. This was a new one for him. In his first life pretty much all of his and his friends' internal crisises were solved with a good speech about friends, family, self esteem, and believing in yourself. Jaune just brushed just such a speech off. Did he do it wrong or something? He never saw one of Makarov's or Mavis' speeches fail like this. ' _What did I do wrong?'_ Natsu asked himself, ' _My speech wasn't that bad was it? Did I miss something?'_ He wondered. For a second Natsu reviewed all the past pep talks he had received and given in the past. What happened with those that didn't happen here..? That's when it hit him, in nearly every single instance where Fairy Tail or his other allies were rallied there was an occompaning fight happening.

That was it! All he had to do was get Jaune in a situation where he got the crap beaten out of him and then convince him to get back up and win the fight! It was so simple! Now how to get Jaune into a life or death battle that Natsu could be sure he would win...

A loud growl interrupted his planing. "Food first, plan later." Natsu decided finally following the other Beacon first years to the lunch room.

Natsu sat down with teams RWBY and JNPR just as Nora was finishing up one of her legendary stories with Ren explaining how it was really just a reaccuring dream.

Taking advantage of the brief silence that followed Ren's explanation of his childhood friend's story Pyrrha turned to her still distraught partner and leader, wanting to know what had him so upset. "Jaune?" She asked him, "Are you okay?"

Jaune jumped a little, seemingly surprised at being addressed. "Huh? Oh yeah. Why?" He tried to deflect.

"It's just you seem a little… not okay." Ruby told him, showing her own concern for her friend.

At this point the entirety of their table was looking at the blonde boy with concern and confusion in their eyes. "Guys I'm fine." Jaune tried to reassure them, "seriously. Look!" He said, giving a strained smile and a thumbs up.

Before any of them could call him out on his obvious lie the mocking laughter of none other than Cardin Winchester caught their attention. Momentarily forgetting their friend's emotional plight the nine teens looked over toward where the leader of team CRDL sat surrounded by his team, a pretty Faunus girl- who Natsu recognized as one of the second years he had seen near the start of the semester- they were picking on sitting in the middle of them, obviously uncomfortable and seemingly too scared to move from her seat.

Natsu growled at the sight. He hated it when people ganged up on those either too weak or unwilling to defend themselves. Bullies like Cardin and his team were little better than bandits in his eyes.

Ignoring his friends' own words of disdain toward the team's actions Natsu roughly stood up from his seat and stalked over to where the team of assholes had advanced their mocking to pulling on the girl's long bunny ears. Seeing the pink haired brawler stalking toward him Cardin sneered. "What do you want Xiao Lo-" Before he could finish Natsu silenced the jerk with a powerful punch to the jaw, the other teen's Aura briefly flashing before seemingly shattering like glass, along with a crack signalling the fracturing or possible breaking of the larger man's chin.

The entire cafetera went silent. Despite being a combat school there was actually next to no fighting done outside of the rings or training exercises. This was due to a combination of knowing that each and every one of their fellow students had the same goal as them, could one day save their lives, respect for each other, and any issues that ended up coming to blows being held off until they could schedule a fight in one of Beacon's combat rings. No one wanted to get kicked out of the school after all. So seeing an actual violent confrontation between students was even more shocking here than in a normal school.

"What the _FUCK_ do you think you were doing Cardin?" The Dragon Slayer snarled.

Cardin's teammates, knowing what the pink haired teen was capable of stepped away in fear, but their leader didn't seem to understand just how outclassed he was compared to the other man. "I was just showing the animal her place Xiao Long." He shot back, "Stupid Faunus should know better than to act like their our equals."

This just infuriated Natsu more. Who gave a shit if she was Faunus or not? It's not like she was a part of the Fang, so what was it that made Cardin think she was any less worthy of being there? Natsu was just about ready to hit the ass again when he was ripped off his feet by an unknown force.

"Mr. Xiao Long, I hope you know that we do not condone the unprovoked assault of fellow students in this school." She told him angrily.

Natsu in turn scoffed at the blond woman's attempt to frighten and chastise him, she wasn't as scary as Erza, nor did she hold the same respect that he gave to Master Makarov. Breaking free of her invisible grip with a burst of Aura Natsu was quick to make his opinion on her words known "Hell of a double standard you got there then, how about you cut the crap and just tell everyone the truth and say that you don't condone the assault of humans here Goodwitch." He told the professor, causing her scowl to deepen.

"What are you implying?" She demanded

"Exactly what I said." Natsu told her, holding up his right hand with his palm facing up the wizard summoned a purple fire, the same fire that Macao always used. As soon as the flames were lit, three tendrils split from the source and flew around the cafeteria, each one grabbing an unseen target. As soon as he felt his fire finish grabbing those he wanted, Natsu grabbed the fire in his hand and pulled it as if it were a rope causing the three people he had captured to be yanked from their spots around the room and be thrown on the floor between him and the deputy headmistress of Beacon academy revealing them to be other teachers employed by the school.

"All four of you saw what Cardin was doing just now, hell you people have seen him harassing almost every Faunus in the whole school since day one. Don't even try to deny it I saw you. Not once did you do anything, in fact most of the teachers did all they could to turn a blind eye. So tell me again what exactly don't you condone here Professor?" Natsu accused, the altercation now having the undivided attention of the whole room, something Goodwitch noticed.

While it was true that the staff was aware of team CRDL's actions, they had decided to turn a blind eye not because they approved of the team's actions, but because they couldn't risk being labeled as supporters for either side, be they the White Fang and the Faunus, or racial supremacists like Cardin Winchester and his team. "I assure you, Mr. Winchester would have been dealt with and punished without your intervention." The blond professor said, trying to save face.

Her answer however only seemed to anger Natsu even more, "I thought I said to cut the crap. If I hadn't stepped in you would have done nothing, and would have continued to do nothing until this asshole either ended up maiming, killing, or raping someone or one of his victims snapped and decided to attack him in turn, and I think we both know who would have been punished if that happened, don't we?" Let it be known that Natsu Dragneel did not like people hurting others without just cause, or those in charge letting people get away with a crime. Heck, even he hated getting away with breaking rules, he always accepted his punishment when he did something against the law, he couldn't tell you how many hours he spent repairing the damage he caused in his battles during his first life. **(AN: For those of you thinking about the time Erza got arrested and Natsu barged into her trial, he doesn't see what they were charging her for as a crime. Ever hear the phrase 'that which is necessary is legal'? It's the reason people who kill in self-defense aren't charged with murder.)**

Seeing that the red eyed teen's comment had caused the other student to begin to give their own looks of anger to her and the other teachers, Glynda Goodwitch thought that it was time they brought this conversation somewhere more private, "I think you should come with me to the headmaster's office Mr. Xiao Long, and you as well Mr. Winchester."

Natsu grinned savagely at that, "Lead the way _Glynda."_ He told her, the use of the blonde's first name not going unnoticed by anyone who heard him, "I'd _love_ to see what Ozpin will be doing about this."

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 **Good? Bad? Amazing? Terrible? Let me know in the comments below!**

 **Oh and for those who care, I'm about half done the next chapter for 'A Spider In Wakanda', it will depict what's going on with Tony now that Peter has run off with the Avengers that sided with Captain America. It will also be posted first on my P at re on just like chapters for this story are. Just a heads up.**

 **Wingd Knight out.**

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P at re on.c om (slash) wingdknight

ko-fi.c om (slash) sevenknights


	14. Chapter 13- A Talk with Ozpin

**Yes yes it has been a while since I updated this particular story, but I did update other things in the meantime so please don't hate me. If you want more of Rebirth my P at re on is two chapters ahead of what is on here and costs only one dollar a month for access, more if you want a say in update schedules and want to commission something.**

 **Also while I have you all I have a few story challenges I'm gonna put out there, if any of you want to write one please PM me when you post the first chapter, and if any of you want** _me_ **to write one just let me know in a comment and I'll write a chapter to see what kind of responses I get. To read these challenges read the Author's Note at the end of the story or check out my profile.**

 **Now that that's out of the way, please read, enjoy, REVIEW, follow, and favorite.**

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The trip to the headmaster's office was a quiet one. Cardin glared at the floor mentally going over plans to beat Xiao Long to a bloody pulp, Glynda was staring straight ahead upset about the whole situation and wondering how things could have possibly gotten to this point, and Natsu had his eyes locked firmly on his professor's ass at it swayed back and forth his thoughts split between fantasies involving the blonde and what he was going to say to Ozpin about the school's inaction policy.

Clearly there are many different kinds of people.

As Glynda led her two students to her friend and boss' office, she couldn't help but wonder how things got the way they did. Beacon Academy was supposed to be the shining light of Remnant, where future protectors where trained and all souls were treated as equals just as they were on the battlefield, yet here she was escorting two of her students to the Headmaster's office one for his attacks on others and one for protecting them when it happened.

If she were being honest with herself, Glynda knew she didn't want to be bringing the pink haired boy along to what could very well be a notification of expulsion, but she also couldn't give the boy any special treatment, he had attacked a fellow student and therefore had to be punished. _'Then why are you only bothering to bring in Winchester now?'_ A dark voice in her head asked her in a patronizing way. Cardin Winchester was not an exceptional student by any means, his grades in traditional subjects such as history and science were barely passing and in courses like her own Combat class he never truly stood out, the only reason many thought he was among the strongest of the first years was because he only ever spared against those he knew were significantly weaker than him; usually one Jaune Arc, though the blonde would likely surpass Winchester boy in a year or two if he keeps up his current learning curve.

In fact there were only two reasons that the mace user left any sort of blip on the radars of Beacon's teaching staff. One was of course his severe racism against Faunus which they had to regrettably let him get away with both to avoid the possible scandal that could arise should Beacon be seen as taking a side in the rather sensitive topic, and because of the second reason Cardin Winchester was on the staff's watch list; the boy's family. While the Winchesters weren't as big a name the Schnee or even the Arcs, they were a fairly wealthy family, with both political clout and a long history. If word were to get out that one of their own was expelled from a Huntsmen academy and could face serious criminal charges for assault the family could cause backlash on Beacon that could lead to not only Ozpin's forced retirement but also a withdrawal of funding and support from the government.

Stepping into the elevator the telekinetic was forced to admit to herself that Xiao Long- or Dragneel or Salamander or whatever he went by- was right. The Beacon staff had, in their decision to ignore acts of violence Cardin displayed, been condoning said actions. The White Fang may have been a group that responded to minor racism with major acts and extreme measures, but the fact remained that they needed to have a bases for their accusations, and that bases was people like team CRDL. If they had acted like they did to a human- or even a Faunus for a reason other than their race- they would have been smacked down immediately, but they had let extremists dictate their policies and responses to crime. They were fools.

Shunting thoughts of the messy world of politics aside Glynda stepped out of the elevator and began mentally preparing how she would deal with her two students and hoping that Ozpin didn't decide to implement any of his more… unorthodox, ideas on how to deal with the matter. She really wanted to forget about the time he sent that team with internal dating problems to spend a week in the Emerald Forest to 'learn to trust each other again'. Long story short days one through four were spent with the four of them yelling at each other so loud you could hear it from the school along with an absurd amount of collateral damage when fighting the Grimm that plagued the forest. As for days five, six, and seven… a… different, kind of screaming was heard from the team. Suffice to say Ozpin thought it was a huge success, even if they did have to turn off all the security cameras in the forest for the last three days.

Monty knew Cardin wouldn't survive if he and Dragneel were forced to be alone together in the Forest for a week. He would be lucky if there was enough ash left from his corpse to give him a proper funeral.

 _How that man can possibly be the head of one of if not the most important secret organization in all of Remnant is beyond me, but I can't deny that he is good at what he does._ Goodwitch thought to herself as she saw the man in question look up from his work to see who had entered his office.

The man's face, which had just before been the vintage of utter boredom, hardened into the mask of the stern disciplinarian he sensed he would have to be when he caught sight of his school's second in command lead not only one of his most disliked charges- not that he would ever act as such or Monty forbid say so out loud, he was a professional after all- but also the student he had personal suspicions of.

Ozpin had yet to find any evidence that young Brand was a part of the group that had attacked the Fall Maiden, but that by no means meant that he was about to start trusting the boy, not only did he have far more Aura than should be possible for a even several teams of huntsmen to possess combined, but he also possessed an incredibly powerful and versatile Semblance that could very well be boosted by the stolen power from Amber Autumn. And even if the fire user wasn't in possession of Amber's stolen power, he was still an incredibly talented fighter that he didn't know the limits or full abilities of which made him a dangerous unknown as far as Ozpin was concerned, and Ozpin hated unknowns. Not because he wanted to control everything, but when fighting a terrorist organisation, murderous beasts of darkness that often got cult followings, and a full blown shadow war against a demon witch over the Relics of Life and magical season women one tended to want to know what pieces were on the board and who they swore allegiance to.

"Hello Glynda, to what do I owe the surprise visit?" Ozpin asked his colleague politely, pretending he didn't already know at least the basics of why she had come.

"Professor Ozpin," she started, "Roughly ten minutes ago, I had to step in and prevent what promised to be a rather heated unsanctioned fight between Misters Xiao Long and Winchester in the cafeteria. As you know I would normally have dealt them their punishment right then and there, however given the nature of the potential fight's cause, I thought it prudent that I bring them here for you to pass judgment on their actions personally." Glynda explained to the Headmaster with a no nonsense tone and a serious gaze.

"I see," Ozpin said while locking his fingers together in front of his mouth, "And may I ask just what the cause was?" He asked his deputy.

Instead of answering right away, Glynda half turned to the side and gave the two boys a hard look before looking back at her boss, "It would seem that Mr. Winchester had been spending his lunch period mocking a fellow student namely a Bunny Faunus by the name of Velvet Scarlatina. It was when his actions escalated into physical contact with the intention to hurt Ms. Scarlatina that Mr. Xiao Long decided to intervene. However instead of seeking out one of the staff to reprimand Mr. Winchester he decided it would be better to break his nose by punching him in the face, fortunately I was able to put an end to the confrontation before it could escalate into a full blown fight." She reported.

"You forgot to mention the fact that you and three other teachers had been watching Cardin for a good twenty minutes before I stepped in." Xiao Long spoke up from his spot behind the deputy Headmistress. With his hands folded behind his head and the patronizing tone he used the boy could have easily passed as Qrow's son instead of Taiyang's. ' _As long as he doesn't start acting like his mother.'_

"I see." Ozpin said to no one in particular, "While it is obvious that Mr. Winchester will be receiving full punishment for his actions, the question is how to deal with Mr. Xiao Long's own… Very well, Mr. Winchester you will be serving four nights of detention with Professor Goodwitch and will write a formal apology to Ms. Scarlatina for your actions. As for you Mr. Xiao Long, you will accompany Mr. Winchester to his first two evenings of detention and are required to reread the sections of Beacon's student handbook that deal with duals and bullying. Now return to your classes and be sure to be at Professor Goodwitch's classroom at seven tonight for your detentions. Dismissed." He told the two boys, ignoring Winchester's smug look at how lightly he got off.

Instead of leaving though Natsu snarled at the older man, his magic responding to his anger and heating the room to near suffocating temperatures. "That's it?" Natsu growled, "A few dull nights and a fucking letter? This guy has been harassing and assaulting people since day one for Mavis' sake and when you finally get off your asses and do something about it you give him a slap on the wrist!?" He demanded, "Are you against this bastard's actions or not?"

"Mr. Xiao Long you are out of line!" Goodwich scolded.

Ozpin raised his hand to silence his friend, "At ease Glynda." he said calmly. "Mr. Winchester, leave us." He ordered. The boy didn't need to be told twice, at this point the heat Brand was producing was making it difficult to breath, and he was pretty sure his armor was going to start melting soon if he didn't get out of there.

After seeing the elevator close Ozpin spoke to his other student firmly, "Tell me Xiao Long, what would you have me do?"

Natsu blinked at the unexpected question, to the point that he even stopped the output of heat he was giving off. "What?"

"What would you have me do in this situation?" Ozpin repeated, "You said yourself you have issue with the punishment I decided upon, so tell me, what do you think should be done?" He asked.

"Expel him! Suspend him! Give him repercussions that are more than what a kid at a normal school would have gotten for a freaking food fight!" Natsu told him, beginning to recover from his shock.

Ozpin's face did not shift from his calm look, "Do you not believe in second chances Mr. Xiao Long? In redemption? If memory serves during your time as the Fire Dragon of the Grimm Lands you left many killers and thugs alive for them to return as allies both to you and small villages around the world." Ozpin told him, "What difference is there here?"

"The _difference_ Ozpin is that I _didn't_ just let them off. I fought them, a talked to them, called them on their shit, and _beat_ some reason into them." Natsu retorted, "Violent people aren't reasoned with with pitiful repremindes, they need _actual_ consequences, they need to be shown that they are wrong not just told! Those people I let get away? I left them broken and bloody, shattered in body and world view. I _proved_ them wrong and when I knew that I couldn't I _took them down._ " the Dragon Slayer told him, "What you are doing is practically encouraging the bastard!" He yelled.

Ozpin let a deep frown break through his mask, "Violence is not always the answer Salamander. Things tend to be far too complicated and messy for that. A more subtle touch is needed more often than not." He explained to the younger man, "Words are a weapon that far to many seem to overlook."

"And action is a language that people tend to ignore when it gives them a moral high ground." Natsu shot back.

The two powerful men stared at the other unblinkingly for a long moment, the air thick with tension and shimmering with heat. The papers on Ozpin's desk began to wrinkle and darken.

"You are dismissed Mr. Dragneel." Ozpin broke the silence, "My punishments stand as they are."

Natsu's glare deepened, his eyes flashing green and slitted for an instant before the enraged teen stalked out of the office.

Glynda looked between the elevator and Ozpin, unsure what to make of the conversation that had just taken place. "Ozpin?" She asked.

"Glynda, I want you to keep an eye on Mr. Xiao Long, and an even closer one on Mr. Winchester. If either of them do anything that may endanger each other, another student, or Monty forbid the people of Vale I want to know immediately." The man told the deputy headmistress.

Glynda blinked at her boss' words, "Ozpin surely you don't think that one of them would do anything like that?" They are just kids, went unsaid.

"I may be forced into a box in the action I can take because of the law and council, but I am not powerless. I think it's time I start reminding people of that." Ozpin told her.

Glynda straightened her stance at the dark tone the man had taken on and nodded, "Yes sir."

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 **Not too bad I hope? Please let me know what you think below. Also before anyone says anything, yes this is a remake of a pretty similar scene from the first draft, though you will notice there are some key differences beyond the timeline of events surrounding this meeting particularly the discovery of the existence of the Maidens and Natsu's talk with Acnologia. Don't worry, such events will take place in the future.**

 **Now onto the challenges/prompts, be sure to tell me what you think about them!:**

 **1) A Young Justice story: As we all know Dick Grayson/Robin/Nightwing is a ladies man and a bit of a player, what many of us know is that in the YJ universe he dated Rocket during the five year gap between seasons (a gap that still pisses me off) and as anyone who know's the story of Rocket knows, she has a child out of wedlock named Amistad. In the fic I am suggesting Amistad is the son of Nightwing without the acrobat knowing. This fic will be a drama type thing where Rocket confides in one of the girls, be it Artemis, Zatanna, Black Canary, or whoever else it does not matter. It would be about Rocket's struggle between letting Nightwing know about his child, not complicating her upcoming nuptials, not wanting to complicate her at the time good relationship with Nightwing and the hero community as a whole, and not wanting to put more pressure and stress on the former Robin as he is already leading a strike team and if you choose also the Titans, the Outsiders, and if you want being in an already existing relationship with either Barbara Gordon Batgirl or Starfire. You can even throw in Mar'i Grayson if you want. Heck you can even make it so this happens during a time traveling thing so she talks to people with the consciousness they have in season one to get extra shock value out of them.**

 **AN: I came up with this one after watching a YouTube video about the YJ version of Rocket and watching a Law and Order episode where the mother killed the daughter she had from an affair without telling her husband (the baby had a slow acting very painful disease that would have killed her anyways over the course of like five years so it was a mercy thing but still pretty messed up).**

 **2) A Harry Potter Fairy Tail Crossover story: As we all know Umbridge sacks poor Trelawney in book five and Dumbldore gets Firez to take over her class. In this story he instead went the extra mile and got a human fortune teller that uses a form of divination that can be taught by the name of Cana Alberona. This story would be a comedy story centering around Cana being awesome (as most FT characters are) and the fact that despite her dress code and alcoholism Umbridge can't fire her because the Card Mage gets too good results. Students and teachers interacting with Cana is also encouraged as that would no doubt also be freaking hilarious.**

 **AN: I came up with this one when I reread a issue of Fairy Tail that mentioned Cana's future telling abilities and the music for Harry Potter came up on my randomized playlist.**

 **Those aren't all of them but if you want to see more, weather for ideas or to ask me to write them check out my profile.**

 **Thank you all for reading, hope you enjoyed it!  
**

 **Wingd Knight out.**

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P at re on.c om (slash) wingdknight

ko-fi.c om (slash) sevenknights


	15. Chapter 14- Histories true and false

**Yes this one took a long time, yes I posted for other stories in that time, yes it has been a while for those as well. The reasons for this? Life. I head out to college next month and there are several things I needed to do for that, had to dive several hours away from home every weekend this past month for various reasons, writers block for chapter 17 (Which is already posted on P at re on, always at least 2 chapters ahead there for this story). You know, stuff. Shouldn't be as long a wait for the next chapter.**

 **Now you know the drill, Read, Enjoy REVIEW, Follow, Favorite, maybe pledge?**

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Doctor Oobleck's world history course had a bit of a reputation. Where Professor Port's class was seen as a napping period with the occasional Grimm fight at the end the green haired doctoral huntsman's course was seen as the class that left everyone dizzy, with migraines, slightly confused, and many with a fear of coffee. It wasn't that Oobleck was a bad teacher- in fact Natsu thought he was the best Beacon had to offer- its just that he tended to forget that unlike him, most huntsmen didn't have increased perception and analysis as a Semblance and couldn't always keep up with his caffeine powered sprints around the classroom or his fast paced lectures.

And yet Jaune still somehow managed to fall asleep in the middle of the class.

' _Yeesh, guess I've been pushing him to hard in his physical training if he can sleep through this right after Port.'_ Natsu thought, ' _maybe I should switch focus for a while to technique rather than physic. Let him catch up on sleep and build his energy back up.'_

"Now just prior the the Faunus Rights Revolution," Oobleck went on, ignorant of the young Arc's sleeping state and the fire user's inner debate, "more popularly known as the Faunus War, humankind was quite, quite adamant centralizing Faunus kind in Menagerie." He told the class, pointing out the island on the world map he kept open behind his desk. The bespeckled man took a sip of his ever present extra strong coffee as he zipped around his desk to get closer to his students.

"Now!" he continued, "While this must feel like ancient history to many of you it is imperative to remember that these are relatively recent events." He told them still zipping around, "Why the repercussions can still be felt to this day!"

Natsu smiled sadly at that. He understood what the man meant when he said that. The legend of Mavis Vermillion was a relatively recent event in his first dimension, only about four generations behind the one he grew up with, yet the repercussions of what she did and her 'death' caused a full blown war to break out over a hundred years later. All because Natsu's suicidal/ genocidal brother couldn't resist a cute girl asking for help… granted given what he knew of the First Master's life if Zeref hadn't taught her and her allies magic there was a good chance Earthland or at least Fiore would have been a war torn shithole, but still.

Amazing what a lovestruck powerhouse and an idealist set on saving the world can accomplish together.

"Now, have any among been subjected or discriminated against because of your Faunus heritage?" He asked the Faunus students.

A student with scaly skin and slit eyes raised his hand two rows behind Natsu and Jaune and after a moment of hesitation the bunny Faunus Natsu had helped several days before- who he now knew was named Velvet- raised her hand as well. Oobleck obviously did not like getting positives from his question.

"Dreadful, simply dreadful." The coffee addict said, "Remember students it is exactly this kind of ignorance that breeds violence." He warned them.

Natsu agreed with this to an extent. The saying ignorance is bliss is also true after all. When you don't understand something fully you more often than not just follow the lead of the loudest voice, which usually is a hateful one and will inevitably help foster wider spread hate and eventually violence, but sometimes not knowing the full truth is better. During his travels through the Grimm Lands Natsu found many hideouts that the Faunus had used during the Faunus War, and after walking through their halls he saw the horrors committed in them. The Faunus of that time didn't wage a 'just war' by any means, they kidnapped, torchered, and butchered countless humans throughout the campaigns. The humans did too yes, but that was all common knowledge, the untold stories of past wars and old hatred are often best left untold. It was the ignorance of the present that caused groups of violent people today, but ignorance of the past that let old grudges die and allows the Faunus to have a platform to stand on to call for peace, it minimized the hatred and reasons behind it. But ignorance of the past also allowed those like the White Fang to claim their cause as righteous, if the truth of what their ancestors did was known no one would sympathize with them.

Ignorance was the cause of many of the world's problems, but it was essential to maintain it less new/old ones take their place… huh guess he finally understood his brother's motivations of wanting a clean slate for humanity.

"I mean- I mean just look at what happened to the White Fang!" Oobleck exclaimed, ignorant of his student's thoughts. "Now, who among you young scholars can tell me what many theorists believe to be the turning point in the third year of the War?" He asked them.

Weiss raised her hand and was quickly called on, "The battle at Fort Castle." She told him. A stupid name for a fort, but whatever.

"Precisely!" Oobleck confirmed pleased with the accurate response, "And who can tell me what advantage the Faunus had over General Lagoon's forces and how said advantage was used?"

Natsu's hand snapped out to catch a paper football that Cardin had shot at Jaune's head, incinerating it with a burst of dragon fire. Unfortunately for Natsu the action caught the attention of his green haired professor who was quick to zip over to the pink haired teen.

"Mr. Xiao Long finally contributing to class I see! Tell me, what is the answer?" Okay this was a bit unfair, Natsu had never had a day of formal schooling in his life and war history wasn't exactly something you randomly picked up… well you kinda did but it's not exactly the most common topic of conversation in bars now is it? Right, time to guess. If you can't dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your bullshit.

"Er, well many Faunus do have better senses than most humans, some even have a level of night vision, so attacking at night and sticking to the shadows would be a good plan." Natsu tried.

Oobleck pursed his lips, "Close, but not quiet I'm afraid!" He told the Slayer, "Mr. Winchester! Perhaps you would like to share your thoughts on the subject?" He asked the larger teen in the second row, who after seeing Natsu try to answer the good doctor's question was leaning back in his seat without a care in the world.

Looking bored and clearly not knowing the answer Cardin shrugged before saying, "Well I know its a lot easier to train an _animal_ than a soldier." He said blandly. Oobleck scowled but said nothing.

"You're not the most, open minded of individuals are you Cardin?" Pyrrha mocked.

Recognizing the insulting tone Cardin instantly got defensive, "What you got a problem?" He asked the red haired combat champion.

"No, I have the answer." she said simply- a bigger burn than any insult if you asked Natsu. "Like Brand said, many Faunus have night vision, and it was this that allowed them to achieve their victory."

Cardin groaned at that.

Before Pyrrha could explain how the Faunus' wider range of vision was used to win the battle, Blake cut in obviously wanting to be a part of the 'make Cardin look like a moron' train. "General Lagoon was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep." She said, "His massive army was outmatched and the general was captured." Oobleck nodded his head at this, though the frown he got from Cardin's words was still in place. Here the golden eyed teen turned to more clearly address Cardin "Perhaps if he had payed attention in class he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure." She mocked.

Angry the large male rose to his feet, but his plans to advance on the girl were quickly stopped when Oobleck reminded the boy he was still in the room, "Mr. Winchester, please take your seat."

Jaune, who had apparently woken up sometime between Oobleck's asking of his question and Blake insulting Cardin laughed at the bully's misfortune. Though that's not to say that his little nap wasn't seen before unfortunately. Oobleck was in front of the only male Arc of the generation in an instant, addressing both the blond and Cardin at the same time, "You _and_ Mr. Arc can see me after class for additional readings." He told the two boys.

The rest of the class was fairly boring to be honest, even with Oobleck's energetic personality. Something about the economics of the time or something. It all just went in one ear of the Dragon Slayer and out the other. At the end of the hour teams RWBY, (J)NPR, and Natsu were more than happy to pile out of the lecture hall. Pyrrha and Natsu waved the others on, saying that they would wait for Jaune to come out before meeting up with them at the cafeteria.

While the two waited for their blond friend Pyrrha decided it was as good a time as any to inquire about her leader's progress in combat, "Jaune's gotten better at using his sword since your started teaching him." She observed, "You really are a great teacher."

Natsu smiled but shook his head, "I'm pretty amazing but Jaune's success is his own. To be honest I'm an intermediate swordsman at best, barely better than the thugs down in Vale at using a blade. Jaune on the other hand is just below being a prodigy with the things. Had his parents encouraged his desire to be a huntsman and actually trained him he would be on par with you at this point." He told her. It hurt to say he wasn't a master of any kind of combat, but he had met enough master blade wielders to know that he was better off using his fists. No one could beat the Fire Dragon Slayer at a slugging match that was for sure.

Pyrrha nodded slowly, a mixed look at happiness about her leader and curiosity about the red eyed teen in front of her on her face. "You said you were friends with a master swordswoman on your travels right? Why didn't she come to Beacon? Or is she at one of the other combat schools?"

Natsu looked down sadly at the redhead's question. The truth of the matter was that he would likely never see his Fairy Tail family again until he died, and that hurt to think about. They were as good as dead as far as interaction was concerned, which is what he'd have to go with to answer Pyrrha's question no matter how much he prefered to think that they were all living happy lives back in Earthland after nearly two decades to accept his own 'death'. "She died. Just like almost every other friend I had in the Grimm Lands." he told her. "I don't like to think about it."

Pyrrha's eyes widened in shock at what he said, "O-oh Oum, I'm sorry, I didn't know." She apologized for bringing it up.

Natsu shook his head, "It's fine, like you said you didn't know, and its not like I made a secret about the fact that I knew people outside the kingdoms. Someone was bound to ask eventually." He waved off her apology.

Licking her lips Pyrrha felt the need to ask, "W-What happened to them? I mean your so strong and the way you talk about them, they could keep up with you in a fight so…"

Natsu sighed, another question he knew would come up sooner or later, and another one where he would have to use half truths and lies to answer. Sometimes he really hated this whole rebirth thing.

"We were all parts of different fighter groups, more mercenaries than anything else but we always protected people for free when the time came for it. A few months before I came home to attend Beacon like I promised my father I would all of our groups banded together to fight a man named Zeref and his own group, and a monster called Acnologia." He told her, "Zeref's group nearly took all of us out despite us outnumbering them, at least as far as people worth noting, the bastard had a bunch of foder soldiers to throw at us as well… Zeref was after something that he thought he could use to make himself the new god of the world. In the end we were all able to defeat his army and I personally incinerated his chest, but it was at a cost. Most of us were dead or wounded and our healers were in no shape to help any of us. That's when Acnologia made his move. He butchered all of us in less than half an hour until it was just me and him… I beat him in the end, but I wasn't able to kill him, he ran away before I could deliver the final blow." Natsu swallowed heavily here, licking his dry lips, "I went around to see if anyone else made it but everyone was either missing or was already dead… except Erza, the swordswoman I knew and one of my closest friends. She told me not to grieve them, she said that we all fought with honor and that it would be disrespectful to their memory if I did anything other than live my life to the fullest for them." Natsu smiled sadly at the thought of his knightly friend, remembering that it was him who gave her a similar speech not the other way around. "So that's what I'm doing. Living my life as happily as I can, waiting for the days that I not only kill Acnologia for what he did, but the day that I can see my friends again, head held high and proud of the life I lived." He finished his story.

Pyrrha looked at the fire user with sad yet admiring eyes, choosing to just accept that her friend had not only killed at least one person before they met, but that he was actually waiting to kill another. Before she could give her own words of comfort to the teen the classroom door opened, Cardin stomping out along with Jaune the two looking angry and resigned respectively.

Natsu clasped Jaune on the shoulder when he saw the blond, "Took you long enough buddy! Come on the others should be holding our seats! I'm starving!" He laughed, effectively pushing the thoughts of Fairy Tail from both his and Pyrrha's minds. The past was the past after all, it was more prudent to deal with the present, and presently the three teens were in need of something to eat.

Priorities after all.

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 **Hope you all enjoyed this one, be sure to tell me what you all think!**

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 **Wingd Knight out.**

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P at re on.c om (slash) wingdknight

ko-fi.c om (slash) sevenknights


	16. Chapter 15- Damaged Pride

**The obligatory filler chapter that I had in the original rewritten for the new version. It's short and it's literally all set up type stuff, but aspects of it will come into play later on. Bare with it people. Now, Read, Enjoy, REVIEW, and maybe subscribe.**

 **PS: An absolute TON of people have asked for me to update this even in reviews for my other stories, I will say this once more: Not only are there multiple chapters more of this story posted in a great deal of advance on my P at re on, but I also have many other active stories on this site, on my P at re on, and on anther site (which I also take commissions from, though I will not name the site as I would get in trouble with the admins if I do. If you want the name of the site and my screen name for it you will have to PM me.) which I also need to spend time on. So please, if you review on one of my other stories, make it about that story not this one.**

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Despite the fact that it had been many years since Natsu had worked as part of a team he clearly remembered the importance of bonding activities. He remembered getting drunk with Grey and Erza, game nights with Lucy, team pillow fight, helping Wendy with the combat aspects of her magic. They did it all. All except one thing. One thing that Grey and he were spared by the grace and mercy of their female teammates every time it came up.

Unfortunately for the Dragon Slayer his sisters didn't have the same mercy.

Why oh why did he have to go _shopping_ with team RWBY? Oh yeah, they wanted a pack mule. Seriously that's even how Yang described it when she dragged him along.

Dragging his sandal clad feet the reborn Dragneel slumped behind the three chatting girls and one mostly silent one arms covered from wrist to shoulder in the straps of shopping bags from a dozen different stores that ranged from bookstores to boutiques to nick nack shops that the huntresses in training had explored. The benefits of having a super rich heiress as a friend and teammate.

"Oo, let's go to Dust Till Dawn next!" Ruby suggested happily seeing the

"I _could_ use some more ammo." Yang nodded in agreement with her sister, and seeing how excited the youngest of them was their partners agreed as well.

"I'll wait for you all outside." Natsu told them, "I doubt the old man would like me lugging all this stuff through his shop knocking stuff off shelves." He said lifting his arms in empathise. They weren't heavy to the pinket, but they were cumbersome. The girls gave the lone boy of the group a brief nod as they entered the Dust shop, leaving him to himself and sparing him the horrors of more shopping.

With a groan the fire user set the multitude of bags he had been carrying down, glad to get some respite from the whirlwind of the past several hours that had been team RWBY's bonding/shopping trip. Mavis he'd rather fight a thousand Grimm than continue this trip.

"Pathetic. The great Salamander reduced to a servant in a mere two decades." A dark all to familiar voice spoke.

Natsu's eyes snapped open, his magic instantly brought to the surface, "Acnologia." He growled, "I thought I'd have to hunt your coward ass down. How's the old stump?" He mocked the Tyrant King.

Acnologia scowled at the younger man, "Do not delude yourself with thoughts of grandeur _Dragon,_ you only survived our last encounter because of outside forces. You will not be so lucky when we next fight." He snarled.

"'When we next fight'? What's the matter Bastard, still feeling sick after the transfer of worlds?" Natsu condescendingly asked, only to get a deeper scowl from his blue haired foe. The wizard laughed, "Oh Mavis you _are!_ Nearly eighteen years and you still don't have your power back!? Talk about pathetic!" He jeered.

An oprosive aura engulfed the two titans of magic in response to the younger's words. "I may not have my full power back you pathetic worm, but what I possess now is more than enough to wipe this city off the face of the planet long before you could strike me down." The dragon promised the young Slayer, "I can sense your magic across this world, smell your new blood in your veins and the hearts of others. You've grown attached to this weak world and its mockery of warriors both in heart and blood. Do you truly wish to test me?"

Natsu lost his smile at Acnologia's threat, "If you know you can't beat me, why are your here Acnologia? What's keeping me from killing you here and now?" he asked.

For a moment the other man just stared at the pink haired teen, obviously gauging his most hated foe's power, the he spoke "I have come to give you some advice son of Igneel. We are without a doubt the most powerful beings that inhabit this world, but we are not the only wielders of the power of magic. There are witches in this world and if you are do not recognize their limited strength they can draw blood from even one such as you. More than that I have sensed the presence of totems forged by old gods hidden here, should any of them fall into the hands of those that wish our deaths it will be most troublesome to defeat them."

Natsu raised an eyebrow at the genocidal powerhouse, "Even if I believed you, why would _you_ tell me this? I would have thought you'd be happy if someone killed me off."

"Do not patronize me worm, if any being other than I killed you it would forever prevent me from taking my revenge against you for humiliating me and preventing my eradication of the dragons." Acnologia growled, "I refuse to have my pride left forever in pieces because of your idiocy dragon as such you _will_ live if only so that _I_ may have the pleasure of ripping your beating heart from your chest and crushing it before your dying eyes."

"Well aren't you a cheery one." Natsu mumbled. "Fine, I'll keep my eyes open for these totems and witches you're so worried about asshole, but next time we see each other I'll turn you into charcoal." He promised.

"A smear of blood nourishing the ground is all you will be dragon. Of that there is not question." The bluenet swore in turn, turning his back on his hated enemy and walking away, showing that despite his currently weakened state he did not fear the Slayer enough to even keep him within his sight. Arrogant prick.

Just as the former human disappeared into the crowdes of the city, Natsu's sisters and their teammates exited the store, the happy energy they entered with still in place. "Well that was fun." Yang said joyously, "Any ideas where we should go now?"

Before one of the other color themed girls could answer the brawler Natsu broke in, "Wherever you go it will have to be without me. There's something I need to check on." He told them, shocking the four at the serious tone he used and the intense look in his eyes as he stared into the throgs of people down the street.

Ruby gulped, she had never seen this side of her brother before. The closest she had ever seen of him acting like this was when he confronted professor Goodwitch and Cardin over Velvet's treatment but even that seemed to pale in comparison to how he was acting now. "O-okay Brand, let us know if you need help yeah?" She tried to tell her brother but it came out as more of a question in her nervous state.

The fire user didn't respond, just turning around and heading back toward the airships that would take him back to Beacon, leaving the multitude of bags the girls had been having him carry on the ground.

Acnologia had finally shown his face after so long and with it brought a warning. There was power in this world. Power that could rival that of Earthland's if the dragon king was to be believed. Good. For the longest time Natsu thought that the power of Remnant was next to worthless when compared to his first homeworld's and that when he inevitably died the world would fall back into fear even if he managed to save it. But if what the tyrant said was true there were things here that could drive the Grimm off in droves, there were people that defend even the hunters of Remnant from the evils of this world. There was hope to be had beyond his existence and strength. It was comforting to have some of the weight lifted from his shoulders, he didn't have to save the world alone. He wasn't alone.

Magic was alive in Remnant, and he would find it.

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 **Like I said, its the filler chapter. Next two chapters are the forever fall arc which will in turn lead to Natsu's next confrontation with Ozpin where some of the stuff talked about here will start to come into play a little bit.**

 **Next two chapters are already done and posted at the usual place, be sure to check out my other stories here and there if you have the time!**

 **Wingd Knight out.**

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P at re on.c om (slash) wingdknight

ko-fi.c om (slash) sevenknights


	17. Chapter 16- Well that escalated quickly

**Right so heads up, I kind of... not hate but greatly dislike RWBY now, so I'm going to post the last three chapters I have written for this story and then be done with it. Sorry but that's how it is.**

 **On another note, I have a poll on my profile that will determine what story I attempt to do next, so please by all means go and vote on it, it will be up until the end of June 2019.**

Forever Fall was a place that was as dangerous as it was beautiful. Located only a few miles outside of Beacon it was a common destination for the huntsmen student's field trips second only to the Emerald Forest. Currently the three highest ranked teams of the first year class- four if you counted Natsu- were on a trip set up by their botany teacher Professor Peach and supervised by Professor Goodwitch. They were supposed to get several jars of the thick, semi-rare sap that the red trees produced. Apparently it was great for making burn creams, medical glue, preserves, and was a good flavoring for the bland rashen food that were given to huntsmen for long term missions. Nora and Ruby were vocal, if not loud thanks to the presence of Goodwitch, of their appreciation of their beautiful surroundings.

"Yes students," Goodwitch addressed the group without turning around, "the landscape of Forever Falls is beautiful, but remember that it is quite dangerous, infested with the creatures of Grimm as they are." She warned them unneededly.

Natsu rolled his eyes at her words. Honestly, like they needed to be told that. Almost everywhere on Remnant was infested with Grimm, why would she think they thought that Forever Falls was anything different?

Next to him Jaune grunted slightly under the weight of the large box of glass jars and various tools that they needed for the collection of the red trees' rare sap. The blonde had offered to carry the equipment for not only his own team, but also for team RWBY and Natsu, sighting that if there was a Grimm attack they would be the ones who could take care of it fastest and easiest. Jaune may have improved a great deal since entering Beacon thanks to Pyrrha and Natsu, but he had yet to reach the great hights of his classmates' skills.

"You okay there Jaune?" Natsu asked his blonde friend.

"Yeah." He grunted, "I'm good."

"I could take some of that if you want." Natsu offered.

"N-no, we're almost there anyway, I can make it." Jaune assured the fire user and himself.

Sure enough only five minutes later Goodwitch told them to disperse and find some suitable trees to extract sap from, reminding the teenagers that their grade depended on getting the full jar's worth of sap and the quality of the sap they collected.

Teams JNPR, RWBY, and Natsu decided to stick together and used the combined skills of Blake, Jaune, Ren, and Natsu to quickly find a grove of old healthy trees to harvest the sap from. Normally it would take them a good thirty minutes and then they would be done if they all worked diligently together, but two problems quickly reared their heads. One, it turned out that the sap they were collecting had a very sweet scent and taste which prompted Nora to start stealing their collected supply to drink herself. And two, Jaune was apparently very allergic to the sap to the point where he could barely stand after only ten minutes of being exposed to the sticky substance.

"Natsu." Blake called over to the fire user who turned at the sound of his name, "do you think you could use your Semblance to heat the trees a bit?" She asked him, "Sap runs faster when there's heat, and I think the only way we're going to get the supply we need is if we can outpace Nora." Blake explained.

Ren, hearing what the raven haired girl said shook his head and sighed, "It wouldn't work. Even if you are careful enough to heat the trees and sap to the proper temperature without burning anything it would compromise the sap itself, and that's even if outpacing Nora's love of the stuff is possible." He told them to which Nora just smiled broadly not ashamed of her actions.

To be fair, Natsu couldn't exactly call anyone out on their gluttony himself.

Jaune groaned from his place on the ground, "Ren just keep her away from the jars while they collect the sap and I try not to die. The sooner this is done the sooner I can ask the nurse for some pills or something." The blonde moaned pathetically.

Natsu laughed lightly at the other teen's misfortune and was about to reply when several whistling noises reached his sensitive ears. Quickly turning his body to face the source of on of the high pitched noises the Dragon Slayer's instincts lead his hand into a lighting fast grab into the air, catching the source of the noise. A glass jar just like the ones they were given at the start of the field trip, filled nearly to the brim with the sweet sap of the red trees of the forest.

' _What the heck?'_ Dimly the pinkett heard two more jars shatter to his right, close to the center of their group and splattering Ruby and Pyrrha with the gewy substance. Giving his now uncomfortable little sister a glance the fire mage's attention was quickly relocated to what he guessed was the source of the flying jars, lead by their smirking leader team CRDL who each had a large box that seemed to his enhanced senses to be vibrating and buzzing.

Natsu snarled at the sight. Spineless assholes couldn't muster the courage to fight him face to face so they resort to petty pranks and targeting his friends and sisters? He would show them the error of their ways.

That's when they opened the boxes.

Out of the plastic and cardboard prisons came dozens of finger long wasps with stingers a quarter the size of their body. ' _Rapier Wasps.'_ Natsu realized with a start. The rare insects weren't Grimm, but they were still considered one of the more dangerous things one could encounter. They were faster than their size would indicate a bug would be, they hunted in packs, and their stingers contained a venom that causes extreme pain and inflammation when it stings you.

A venom that Ruby was highly allergic to.

"Brand!" Yang yelled when she too saw the approaching wasps, his twin's eyes wide with worry and fear. If even one of them got Ruby there was a good chance she wouldn't make it.

' _Why are they coming this way?'_ Natsu inwardly cried, ' _They were right next to CRDL and nowhere near us!'_ the Slayer's nose twitched and his eyes widened. The sap. The sweet smelling, pungent sap that was covering his high risk little sister was attracting the wasps like honey did bees.

"SHIT!" Natsu practically roared. He had to take these things out _fast_ before there was a chance of error and one of them getting to Ruby. "Behind me! NOW!" He yelled at his fellow students.

Recognizing the power and authority of his command if not the reason or desperation behind it Ren, Nora, Blake, and Jaune hurried behind their friend to stand with the others as the rapier wasps quickly closed in, team (C)RDL- out of their lines of sight but not Natsu's- watched the scene nervously while Cardin himself grinned maliciously. Natsu snarled at the sight, the bastard thought he could get away with something like this? He was a fool.

By now the wasps had gathered into a single cloud of buzzing wings and bodies, closing in on where the two teams and spair where gathered. Seeing that this was the time to strike them all down at once Natsu sharply inhaled and gathered a small dreg of his magic into his lungs, feeling the power ignite inside him Natsu thrust his head forward, quickly expelling the gathered power and air, turning it into an inferno of low grade dragon fire that quickly enveloped the approaching insects causing their caperices to shatter from the intense blaze and their bodies to swiftly turn to ash.

The swarm was dead, there exoskeletons now crackling in the remains of the flames that killed them. So why could he still hear buzzing?

"Ah!" Ruby yelped behind him the noise behind followed by a hard slapping noise and an end to the buzzing noise followed by the sound of a body falling to the ground.

' _No.'_ Spinning around Natsu saw what he feared, the very thing he had wanted to avoid. Ruby had been stung.

One of the wasps must have been outside the swarm when Natsu attacked, the sound of the burning corpses of its brethren hiding its beating wings from the others while it got close to the sap covered scythe user its presence only being revealed after it stung her.

Before he even finished processing what had happened Natsu was kneeling at Ruby's side her entire body twitching as the wasp's venom worked its way through her bloodstream. For most people the venom would cause inflammation around the point of entry, but for those allergic to it like Ruby it could make her entire body start to swell, so much so that it could cause irreversible damage to blood vessels, muscles, her heart, or even her brain.

"Someone call Goodwitch!" He ordered the others not listening for a reply, "Where's her epipen?" Natsu demanded looking at his similarly worried twin on the other side of their younger sibling.

"I don't know!" Yang yelled frantically.

Cursing Natsu started ripping open the pouches on Ruby's belt, tearing out extra ammo clips, small tools, snacks, rappers from sweets, her scroll, and a dozen other little odds and ends, but no epipen. "Damn it where in the name of fucking Zeref did she put her pen?!" He yelled after looking through the last pouch.

"Give me her scroll, I'll call her locker, maybe it's in there." Yang said in a panic swiping up the communication device before Natsu even had the chance to reach for it.

"There isn't time Yang!" He snapped at her. Indeed Ruby had already turned a deep red color and he could see several of her veins starting to bulge under her skin. ' _Damn it what do we do?'_ Natsu snarled at himself. None of them had a healing Semblance, they had no way to neutralize the venom, Ruby was on a ticking clock, and help was who knew how long a ways away. That's when he got an idea.

' _Wait. If we can't neutralize it, can we just get rid of it?'_ He wondered. ' _Desperate times call for desperate measures I guess.'_ Slowly the Dragon Slayer took a deep, calming breath through his nose, his eyes as hard as steal. If he was going to pull this off he was going to have to be careful and precise. Not things he was overly used to, especially when it came to the direct use of his magic.

On the tip of his right index finger a small crystalline green flame sparked into being. Based off of rejuvenating and purification flames it was- to his and Zeref's knowledge at least- the first and only true fire type healing spell ever created. A spell that hadn't existed ten seconds previously. ' _Here goes nothing.'_ He thought and brought his burning finger to hover just over the entry point of the Rapier Wasp's venom. With a flex of his will over the newly created spell he directed the flames to enter the body and blood of his sister. In his mind's eye he pictured the green flame spreading through her veins, saw it burn the pale yellow of the wasp's poison to nothing even as each cell of blood was left undamaged. Slowly but surely his fire burned the venom from her blood.

Weiss' eyes widened in alarm when she saw the steady stream of fire entering her friend and leader's body, "What are you doing?" She shrieked, "You're going to kill her!"

"No." Natsu breathed, his focus on his sister, "I'm going to save her." The angry blue veins that traversed Ruby's skin began to glow a faint flickering green and began to disappear, her angry red vintage slowly returning to her normal pale color as Natsu burned the venom from her body.

With a shuddering breath Natsu recalled his magic from her body removing the fire from her blood, the venom gone from her blood. She would no doubt be feeling ill for a few days as the last dregs of the venom's effects are purged from her body, but she would live and she would be no worse for wear by the week's end.

"How?" Yang whispered amazed at what she had seen. Her brother had just burned a toxin straight out of Ruby's blood, while it was still in her veins! How much control and precision did he possess over his power to be able to do something like that?

"Necessity is a good teacher." Was all the pink haired teen said in response standing up from his spot next to their younger sister. "Get her out of here, forget getting the rest of the sap for this stupid project." He ordered as he began to walk toward where he sensed the retreating Auras of team CRDL.

"Where are you going?" Ren asked as he passed.

"To return the favor CRDL saw fit to give us."

 **Love it? Hate it? Let me know what you all think and all that. BE SURE TO VOTE ON THE POLL. Oh, and check out my other stories maybe? Next chapter for this one will be posted in a few days.**

 **Wingd Knight out.**


	18. Chapter 17- A Demon's Mercy

**Okay first off, due to several reviews lamenting the fact that this story was planned for scrapping- including several very consistent and loyal readers of it- I have decided NOT to abandon the story. It will, however, be a backburner for the foreseeable future so please still go vote on the poll on my profile.**

 **Seriously only 20 people have, a good chunk of those didn't use all three votes they could have, and four- yes 4- different ideas are tied in first place. So please go vote on that.**

"Crap Cardin we are so freaking _screwed!"_ Sky yelped as he and his team ran from where they had released the rapier wasps the four of them booking it when they saw Rose go down. Cardin had come up with the idea, he said it was an easy way to get back at Xiao Long for making them look like idiots. Sky, Russel, and Dove had wanted to do something else, maybe spike his food with something or switch out all his clothes but their leader insisted that capturing and releasing the wasps was the best option.

They thought that RWBY, JNPR, and Xiao Long would just end up with a bunch of welts and stuff, prove they weren't as strong as a lot of the other first years and even a lot of the upper ones claimed. They didn't think anyone could have actually _died_ from it! Things had gotten way out of hand. Rose might be dead, Xiao Long was almost definitely going to hunt them down like low level beowolves, there was almost a guarantee that they would be expelled if the teachers ever got evidence that they were involved, hell they might end up going to prison for murder because of what they just did!

"Shut up!" Cardin snarled. The large orange haired mace user was freaking out almost as much as his teammates, but unlike them his fear was overshadowed by his arrogance and anger. Once again the pink haired bastard had bested them, maybe not directly or publically this time, but it was his victory nonetheless. "Look we were too far away for any of them to have seen us. All we have to do is go to another clearing, fill up some of the other jars we brought along, and act like we saw and did nothing. It'll be their word against ours." He told his team firmly.

"What makes you think I'll let you do any of that?" A dark voice cut through the air. All around them the forest burst into flame, surrounding them in a ring of hauntingly quite fire.

"Xiao Long." Cardin growled, "Show yourself you fucking coward!" He yelled.

"No need to yell, I'm right here." the fire user mockingly chastised stepping dramatically through his conjured fire, his shadowed form taking on an image of a demon straight out of Hell.

Dove, the most superstitious of the four, was more than convinced that the image was genuine. "Wh-what the hell are you?" The teen stuttered.

"Me?" Natsu asked, "I'm the one you were stupid enough to target, the one whose family you almost killed, the one who is about to bathe you in flames hot enough to have come from hell itself." Natsu told them, slowly walking closer to the four of them. He wasn't kidding about the fire; he had learned that there were two types of cursed flames he could call upon and had made magic variants of them to use without unleashing E.N.D.. He called them the Fires of Armageddon, and the Flames of Hell.

The first one, the Fires of Armageddon, burned almost as hot as his Dragon Fire but tended to bypassed all but powerful Magical Defenses and even those did little to protect the target of the garnet flames.

The other, the Flames of Hell, also bypass many forms of defense but they were incapable of doing any physical harm. The Flames of Hell were purely spiritual in nature, those who were consumed by them would feel their skin melting and their blood boiling, suffering through constant agony, but they would never die from it. In Earthland the fire would consume the victim's magic while they were tortured, but on Remnant One's Aura was the target. The fire would slowly burn their energy out of their bodies so that fighting them would only be harder, and even when the last drop of the victim's power had been burned away, the fires will continue to cling to their flesh like a parasite until Natsu himself chose to show them mercy else they would be doomed to live out the rest of their lives in agony, their nerves never numbing their minds never resting there would be no escape from the wine colored flames, save death. Suicide or starvation to be precise as the fire itself didn't actually damage them and prevented death via pain overload.

It was these flames that he would be using- though slightly modified, after all killing the four of them would just cause more trouble than they were worth.

"You think I'm afraid of you, freak!?" Cardin demanded, "Come on you bastard, I'm going to enjoy breaking your skull!"

Natsu only smirked at the threat, "So eager to start the fun, aren't you Cardin? But do you really think your puny little club can hurt me?" He taunted.

"How about I show you Pinky!" Cardin snarled charging forward with his mace held high. Bringing his weapon down with both hands Cardin aimed for the other boy's skull a look of pure rage painted on his face. He knew that thanks to the other teen's Aura it wouldn't actually break his skull, but with the amount of power he put into the blow it would no doubt feel like getting hit by a bus and should put him out for a while.

 _Fool_ , Natsu thought easily catching the descending weapon, the ease with which he did so shocking the orange haired teen.

"Didn't I tell you that your club couldn't hurt me?" Natsu mocked Cardin. "Now it's my turn." he lit his hand up with the Flames of Hell, "Burn." He said slamming his fist into Cardin's chest plate shattering the tempered steel like glass and covering his torso in the unworldly flames.

As soon as the cursed fire touched his skin Cardin's world was overcome by pure agony, it felt as if his very soul was being submerged into liquid steel. The pain was all consuming, he couldn't move, he couldn't see, think, or breath. He could only scream.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
"Miss Goodwitch!" Yang called out to the blond woman, "Miss Goodwitch, help!" she yelled running up to the teacher, carrying her unconscious sister in her arms and her friends trailing behind her.

"Miss Xiao Long, what is the meaning of this?!" The deputy headmistress demanded after seeing the state of the red themed girl.

"She got stung by a Rapier Wasp and had an allergic reaction." Blake told the strict woman.

"How is that possible? I brought another class here just last week and there were no Rapier Wasp nests anywhere in the area."

"It was team CRDL." Yang growled, "They let a bunch loose near where we were collecting our sap. Brand saw them running away after he helped Ruby and is chasing after them now." Yang explained.

Hearing this did not sit well with the green eyed woman, Brand Xiao Long and Cardin Winchester had a history of violence against each other that only seemed to have gotten worse after their shared detentions with her.

The two were complete opposites, Cardin believed in human superiority and Faunus suppression while Brand was a supporter of equality. Cardin thought political power and fear would let him rule all of Remnant while Brand couldn't seem to care less- though if Ozpin was right about him that was just a ruse. _'If Winchester really was almost responsible for Miss Rose's death, there is a good chance her brother will cause the boy great harm,'_ Glynda thought.

Her thoughts, along with anything else the two teams might have said, were cut off by a head-splitting scream that resonated with great pain.

"Oh no," Goodwitch whispered she remembered the sound of that scream from earlier in the year when Cardin Winchester had broken a rib in a sparring match against Yang.

As soon as she heard the scream Blake palled, she had heard a scream like that before. Just before her last mission for the White Fang, she had witnessed one of the most horrific things that she thought she would ever see. Adam Taurus, her friend, and mentor had just handed over a Schnee company executive who had been known in the past to abuse many Faunus under his control. The man hadn't gone so far as to strike or to kill anyone but he had verbally and emotionally attacked many young Faunus when they didn't perform up to the standards he expected from them. He had been a terrible boss and an ass to everyone he came across but he hadn't deserved to die like he did.

Adam had decided to make an example out of him. In front of several dozen of his followers, he had covered the man in a thin layer of Fire Dust and set him alight. It took the small amount of Dust nearly an hour to kill the man, slowly burning away his skin, muscle, and fat until his body finally gave out.

And Adam… Adam had just watched as the man burned, his expression blank.

She wouldn't let something like that happen again. Not to anyone, even someone like Cardin, even if it meant once again acting against someone she called a friend.

No sooner had the thought entered her mind that Blake was running through the forest in the direction of the tortured screams of Cardin Winchester the others quickly falling behind due to her superior speed. She hated the man, she really did, but if Natsu ended up killing him in his rage he would be thrown in prison faster than Ruby could eat a plate of cookies. She couldn't lose another friend to hatred, she just couldn't.

Blake ran for what felt like hours, Cardin's screams of pain unending and ringing in her ears. What could Natsu possibly be doing to him that could cause him so much pain?

Blake finally burst into the clearing where the noise was originating from only to have her way blocked by a solid wall of dark red fire that every one of her senses were screaming at her not to get near.

"Natsu!" She cried, "Natsu, please stop!" she begged, "Don't do this Natsu!" She continued to yell into the fire, unable to see anything through the thick flames despite the odd absence of any form of smoke.

"NATSU!"

Finally, as if in response to her calls the barrier of fire began to thin allowing her to see the scene that it had been hiding. There in the middle of the clearing created by the violent yet controlled fire stood Brand Xiao Long, Natsu Dragneel, over the smoldering thrashing body of Cardin Winchester.

"No." Blake whispered in horror. She was too late, Cardin was dying, he had killed him.

"Calm down Blake." Natsu told her without looking away from his victim, "He'll be fine. I'm just making sure that he learns his lesson."

"You're killing him."

Natsu shook his head, "No, I'm making him feel pain. Look, even his hair is undamaged." He pointed out. Sure enough, Cardin's slicked back orange hair looked the same as it always did despite it being seemingly being on fire.

Blake's heat slowed slightly. Her friend wasn't a murderer then. "I don't know how you're doing this Natsu but you need to stop."

"If your worries about his wellbeing don't be, I designed these flames to only leave a slight mental imprint when I choose to remove them. He will remember having been beaten, powerless, and in pain, but he won't be able to remember how much nor will there be any lasting damage to his nerves or his brain." He assured her, "I based the idea around how I usually deal with enemies. Beat them, hard, make them consider their choices, and leave them. I could have used my fists, but this was faster and has less probability of killing or crippling him." He explained.

Blake licked her lips worriedly, her eyes still fixed on the spasming form of Cardin Winchester. "You make it sound like you have a lot of practice doing that." She said trying to stall for time while Goodwitch and whoever followed her caught up.

"You've heard my story, you even call me Natsu, you know at least some of what I've done. You shouldn't be so surprised." He said calmly.

Blake winced. She had heard the legend of Natsu Dragneel, she never tried to hide that even when they had first met, but she had always thought it had mostly been exaggeration until the day of initiation, and even then she hadn't believed all of it. Seeing this though, seeing the burning yet not form of someone who had acted against him, Blake realized that the stories of dozens of men and women being beaten, broken, or even killed as they all tried to take down the Dragon had been real. Natsu was a killer, just like Adam.

But Cardin was still alive, and a quick glance around the rest of the newly formed clearing showed that his team was as well, even if they were all unconscious. "What do you plan on doing with him?" She finally asked.

"Personally? Nothing." He admitted and with a wave of his hand, he extinguished the fire that had engulfed the orange haired teen. "I'm not judge and jury, I'll kill when its prudent but as much as I wish I could turn Cardin into a pile of ashes this is not such a case. We are within the boundaries of the kingdom, close by and getting closer is a fully licensed Huntress and we are technically under the jurisdiction of the Huntsmen organization as trainees. There is no reason to kill him, so now that I've done my part to instill a lesson into his thick skull I'll turn him over to Glynda and let the headmaster deal with him." Natsu told her bitterly.

Blake nodded finally looking away from Cardin's now still body to look her red-eyed friend in the face. "This was extreme." She told him.

"No." He denied, "It was necessary."

 **Good? Bad? Happy to hear the next chapter won't be the last? DID YOU VOTE YET? Please review!**


	19. Chapter 18- Fallout and Politics

**Posting this a few days and hours later than I had planned, but whatever. The poll on my profile is still up and now there are only THREE choices fighting to be number one. So yeah, go vote and fix that for me would ya? Also review!**

Natsu silently followed his blond haired professor as she led him to the headmaster's office once more, his eyes planted firmly on her ass. 'I've been going to his office a lot haven't I?' The wizard thought to himself absently, amused at just how accurate such a statement was, this was what? The third time he's had to go to see Ozpin since coming to Beacon? That's more than most students visited the headmaster in their whole time at the academy and he did it in his first semester.

"You are making quite the habit of causing trouble don't you Mr. Xiao Long?" Goodwitch asked her most troublesome student.

Natsu shrugged, "It keeps things interesting."

The blonde rolled her eyes at the explanation, it sounded so much like what his uncle or father would say during their time in school that she wasn't even phased. The two did not speak again until they reached the headmaster's office.

"Enter." Ozpin's voice called out. "Ah, Glynda what can I- oh, Mr. Xiao Long, what happened."

"You make it sound like I go around causing problems."

"Do not pretend you do not." Ozpin scolded the teen, "Now what happened?"

Goodwitch was quick to explain, "We came here because team CRDL released a swarm of Rapier Wasps to attack teams RWBY, JNPR, and Mr. Xiao Long, one managed to sting Ms. Rose causing a severe allergic reaction nearly resulting in her death."

Ozpin's eyes widened in shock and horror at the news, "If that is the case, where is team CRDL? They must be held accountable."

"They are currently in the hospital wing while their leader is being looked over." Goodwitch answered Ozpin.

"I thought you said it was Ms. Rose was the one in need of medical attention, why is Mr. Winchester being looked over?" Ozpin questioned.

Goodwitch coughed into her hand, "It would seem that in the time between the release of the wasps and my learning of the event, Mr. Xiao Long was able to use his Semblance to heal his sister and brought it upon himself to track down Mr. Winchester and… express his displeasure at his actions." The blond haired professor explained.

Ozpin turned to star at the pink haired teen that stood before him across his desk, the constant movements of the countless gears that resided in his office tower the only thing keeping them from being engulfed in silence. "Are you going to explain yourself?" He asked, "Attempt to defend your actions?"

Natsu shook his head, "No, Goodwitch told you what happened, and I don't regret what I did."

Ozpin's gaze hardened, "You attacked a classmate, you could have caused permanent damage to his body and mind."

"I taught a wanna be murderer that his actions have consequences and that he isn't nearly as strong or powerful as he likes to believe." Natsu shot back, "Besides, I knew what I was doing. There won't be any long term effects from what I did." The spell he used was designed so that after the target was removed from the spell's effects they would not remember the pain beyond the fact that there was pain. No crippling fear of fire, no nerve damage beyond what a week of rest could cure, no PTSD, nothing but a fear of the caster and being subjected to the spell again.

By now the look Ozpin was giving his fellow wizard would have made a lesser man break out into a cold sweat or have a small nervous breakdown, but Natsu met it with indifference. "There will be repercussions for your actions Mr. Xiao Long." Ozpin told him seriously.

"I'll take them without regret." Nothing could be worse than _that_ after all.

Ozpin gave a deep sigh at his student's nonchalance, "You do not seem to understand the severity of what I'm talking about."

"Oh yeah? What did I miss?"

Ozpin sighed, "The part where one of those attacked has a history of assaulting the offender and no neutral parties being present at the time of the incident." He explained, "Neither we nor the police can take your word at face value Mr. Xiao Long. The Winchesters are a highly respected family and they have numerous connections in every level of government in the kingdom, that in tandem with the history you two share will result in the case being dropped at best and you being charged with assault of the child of a high standing family at worst."

"We had the heiress of the Schnee Dust company, the only son of the Arc family, and a world famous celebrity witness the event headmaster. I'd like to see what connections the Winchester's have that can top all three of their words along with my own." The slayer snarled.

"You also have your twin who has an outstanding criminal record for assault and property damage." Goodwitch told him.

"Those charges were dropped when they found out those injured had connections to smuggling rings." Natsu shot back, "If anything Yang being there just gives more credit to Cardin being guilty."

"Mr. Xiao Long." Ozpin said seriously, "It does not matter what witnesses or evidence you have, anything short of a confession or a video of the event will hold. The Winchesters as a whole are good people, but Cardin and his father both are some of the biggest believers of human supremacy in the kingdom and have both synthesizers that will vouch for them being upstanding citizens that can do no wrong, and enough money to blackmail more to give false testimony that will paint both you and your family in a bad light, which in turn will set up Mr. Winchester to be the victim." He explained.

"My father is a high ranking huntsman and one of the best teachers at Signal, my uncle is recognized as one of the best huntsmen alive second only to you on top of stopping over a dozen Grimm invasions of settlements outside the walls single handedly, and Ruby's only public marking is when she stopped a robbery and engaged a wanted criminal." Natsu pointed out, "How exactly do you paint people like that in a bad light?"

"By pointing out that your father has lost two wives and the damage it most of had on his psyche, that your uncle despite all he has done for Remnant as a whole is also a chronic drinker who has damaged Atlas military property multiple times and openly insults their top general, and by telling the court just how much property damage your sister caused when she engaged those robbers." Ozpin told him tiredly, "I understand that you are upset about this Mr. Xiao Long, but bringing this to the police or even expelling Mr. Winchester will only cause more trouble for everyone. You, your sisters, teams RWBY and JNPR, and Beacon as a whole." The headmaster continued.

"So you won't be doing anything." Natsu ground out, "You want this to just be swept aside and forgotten about."

"What I want and what I need to do are not the same thing." Ozpin almost snapped in response, "As much as it pains me to say it there are times when injustice must be left unpunished so that worse things do not happen." He tried to explain.

"Doing nothing is just as bad as doing something bad!" Natsu yelled back.

"Enough!" Ozpin slammed his fist onto his desk, his Aura briefly spiking, "I know that you are used to taking every problem you face and turning it into a pile of bones and ashes Xiao Long but things are not the same in places like Vale and situations like this. This is a kind of battle that you know nothing about and are to emotional and vindictive to understand so for once in your life listen to your elders and _watch_ and possibly _learn_ instead of smashing your fist into whatever has set you off!" Ozpin nearly yelled at the fire user to the shock of his second in command.

Taking a deep breath to regain his composure Ozpin waved the boy away, "Go to your sister Xiao Long. There is nothing more to discuss. Professor Goodwitch will inform you of your punishment when classes resume after the weekend.

Natsu growled at the dismissal and turned away but stopped halfway to the elevator, "Before I go Professor." He called civilly over his shoulder, "do you know anything about old religious artifacts or witches?"

From the corner of his eye Natsu saw the Headmaster stiffen at the question even as his face remained impassive, "There are many relics from old religions around Remnant." Ozpin brushed the question aside, "As for witches, they don't exist, magic is just a myth as are any supposed users of the power."

Natsu hummed at the response, while nearly anyone else would have been placated by Ozpin's words Natsu knew he was lying. Weak as Ozpin was compared to Natsu, and skilled at hiding his power to boot, Natsu could still feel the magic that Ozpin wielded under his Aura and the damaged magical core of someone far beneath the school. He hadn't noticed it the first time they had met at the police station, but after his talk with Acnologia Natsu had taken to searching much more thoroughly for magical signatures. "If you say so Headmaster." He made sure to express his opinion about Ozpin's words in his tone.

Ozpin's eyes were like steel, "Good day Mr. Xiao Long."

Glyda turned to her old friend and boss as soon as the metal doors closed behind the teen, her expression worried, "How could he know something like that Ozpin?" She asked, "Only the inner circle knows about the Relics and the Maidens!"

"Not only." Ozpin said solemnly.

The blonde's eyes widened in shock, "Ozpin, you can't really suspect that the boy has joined Salem?"

"I do not know Glynda. At the very least he must have had some kind of contact with her or her own inner circle to know about the Maidens and Relics." He sighed. He had suspected there was something insidious about the unreal power the boy wielded, now he had proof- shaky and circumstance as it was- that he was at the very least in contact with the Grimm queen.

"We need to call his father and Qrow." Glynda said firmly, "They need to know, maybe they can help us sort this out."

The ancient wizard nodded. Yes talking to the boy's father and uncle was the right thing to do, they deserved to know what the pink haired teen may have become.

"Stupid assholes," Natsu grumbled under his breath as he made his way to the hospital wing to check on his little sister. "How is she?" He asked the moment he opened the door to the medical wing of the school.

Yang was the one who answered him from her place by their sister's bed, their friends taking up various positions around the young reaper as well, "Not as bad as she could be. The nurse said whatever you did to her got rid of most of the venom but it will take a while for her body to flush the rest of it out, until then she's going to be tired, won't be able to keep much food down and may experience some vertigo but she'll wake up soon." She told her twin.

The Salamander sighed in relief "Good, last time this happened she was stuck in bed for a week."

"Actually the nurse wanted us to ask you something when you got here." Pyrrha spoke up.

"Hm? What?"

"What the hell did you do to Cardin?" She asked bluntly. "He's been knocked out since he came in, the nurse said he's completely out of Aura."

"Oh him? I set him on fire." Natsu waved it off.

Yang gaped at her twin in shock and a bit of horror, "What? But the nurse didn't say anything about him being burned, Brand what did you do?"

"I set him on fire." Natsu repeated himself, "I just didn't use normal fire. I used my Semblance to alter the fire I used so it only affected his nervous system, his Aura depleted itself trying to heal burns that were never there and he passed out from the pain." He explained.

"You can do that?" Jaune asked amazed.

"Semblances can be used in some pretty creative ways if their users put the time into learning some." Natsu nodded, "I mean Ruby has been experimenting with using hers to give herself temporary flight in combat and you already saw that I can do some pretty awesome stuff with mine."

"Moving on." Blake cut in, not wanting to be forced to remember what she saw in the forest of Forever Fall, "What did Ozpin say was going to happen to Cardin?"

Natsu's face darkened, "Nothing." He told them, "He said that because of his family's money and connections there was nothing any of the staff could do." He growled.

"WHAT!?" Yang screeched, "The bastard almost killed Ruby, and they're just going to let him get away with it!?"

"Trust me I said the same thing." Natsu told his blond haired twin, "Ozpin said that because Cardin and I have a history of violence with each other my word won't hold up in court, take that and your own counts of assault and it makes him look like some hapless victim instead of the racist ass he really is."

Here Weiss cut in with a question of her own, "What about my word? Or Pyrrha's or Jaune's or everyone else's?"

"He said that because of the Winchesters' standing in Vale Blake's, Nora's, and Ren's would mean jack. As for you three, it wouldn't matter. Apparently other than Cardin and his father the rest of the Winchesters are upstanding citizens with close ties to people on every level of Vale's government. The Schnee may hold weight in Vale, Vacuo, and Minstrel but they are a primarily Atlas family, and the Arcs and Pyrrha's fame really only reach into huntsmen circles not political ones… Well the Arcs might but not on the justice system, maybe military."

"Politics is both one of mankind's best creations and most irritating." Ren said calmly, "However this can work for us."

"How?" Yang demanded, her hair burning from her rage.

"The Winchesters may have connections that will protect Cardin, but they must also have an image to defend as well if they want to be able to keep those connections. If we can get Cardin to snap in front of a large group of people and pile on all we have against him at once, whoever is in charge of his house may just decide to cut his losses and throw Cardin to the wolves." Ren told them, "And as long as we don't touch him outside of combat classes we can do whatever we want to him until such a time comes."

Weiss slowly turned to face Nora, "I now understand what you see in him." The heiress told her.

"W-we're not like that!"She cried out. She was ignored.

 **AN: It was mentioned that I very much need a beta reader, while I agree that my spelling and more often my grammar is not the best I would like to point out that getting a good beta is now easy and maintaining contact with one is even harder so please endure.**

 **Now once more: REVIEW AND VOTE PLEASE**


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